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Yankees Sign Murphy For $1.25 Million

Posted Aug. 17, 2009 11:32 am by Jim Callis
Filed under: Signings

The Yankees have signed J.R. Murphy, and BA’s Aaron Fitt has confirmed that his bonus is $1.25 million. That’s the highest bonus in the second round this year, and more than double MLB’s $477,900 guideline for his draft slot (No. 76).

A catcher from The Pendleton School (Bradenton, Fla.), Murphy is an advanced hitter with some power potential and arm strength. He had committed to Miami.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 at 11:32 am by Jim Callis and is filed under Signings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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8 Comments

[...] Again, courtesy of Baseball America, the Yanks have come to terms with their second round pick (JR Murphy). He signed a healthy, $1.25M bonus. [...]

Posted by Yanks Sign 2nd Round Pick | August 17, 2009 at 11:36 am | Shortcut

Nice to see that the Yanks continue to over pay what a person’s worth. They paid mid-1st $’s for a guy who was seen as 5th round pick. No one thought he even expected more then 2nd round money.

Posted by Mark | August 17, 2009 at 1:36 pm | Shortcut

They had to go that high, the system in now healthy with catching prospects. Posada turned 38 today.

Posted by Bob Michaels | August 17, 2009 at 1:42 pm | Shortcut

For what it’s worth, Mark, we had Murphy in the top 100 (No. 95, to be precise), which is a top-three-rounds guy. He wasn’t seen as a fifth-round pick here; the only question was the defensive position. No one I talked to questioned his bat, just the profile. If you believe in him behind the plate, then he’s definitely in play in the second round.

Posted by John Manuel | August 17, 2009 at 2:08 pm | Shortcut

Has there been any word on the Yankees signing Chad Thompson or not?

Posted by Steven | August 17, 2009 at 3:43 pm | Shortcut

John,
You stated that if you beleive in his catching skills then he was worth a 2nd round pick, but BBA had him as a 3rd rounder. You seem to have missed the point. The Yanks paid him as if he was a mid 1st round selection in a draft that they did not pick some guys becuase they claim to have had a restrictive budget – They gave Murphy twice what even you thought on his high side he could get!

Posted by Mark | August 17, 2009 at 3:47 pm | Shortcut

You made the point that he was considered a fifth-round talent; I was refuting that. I wasn’t approaching your other point, that he’s not worth $1.25 million. I am of the opinion that the Yankees’ recent draft track record, in terms of the money they throw around at players, has not been fruitful. They overpaid for Ian Kennedy, Andrew Brackman, Carmen Angelini, Dellin Betances, Bradley Suttle . . . I know there are others, and some of the guys they’ve given a lot of money in recent years are off to good starts, such as D.J. Mitchell. But in general, it seems the Yanks aren’t getting huge bang for their bucks in the draft, so signing Murphy for $1.25 million fits that track record. Let’s hope for Murphy’s sake that his career gets off to a better start than those of Angelini, Brackman, etc.

Posted by John Manuel | August 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm | Shortcut

The Yankees are the most mystifying team of the draft. Remember Lance Parrish’s kid?

No team consistently overdrafts players like the Yanks, and then last year they won’t pay Gerrit Cole.

When they draft and sign a kid like Phil Hughes that is what stands out. In the last ten years Hughes is probably the only high school talent like that who they drafted and signed in the first round. Gerrit Cole would have been the second.

Why? They have all the money in the world but seem to refuse to use it here.

Posted by AEC | August 17, 2009 at 6:55 pm | Shortcut

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