We all know that the AL Rookie of the Year vote will come down to Luis Robert and Kyle Lewis. Any other rookies are, at best, battling to finish third in the vote. However, the stellar performances by those two rookies should not take away from the other freshmen, particularly Oakland A’s catcher Sean Murphy.
He did not start the season particularly well. Through the quarter-point of the season, Murphy had a .167/.286/.267 batting line in his 35 plate appearances, with just one homer and five walks. He also struck out 13 times, a concerning number of whiffs for the A’s primary backstop.