The Red Sox made a few minor moves earlier this week, but those moves are huge for the players involved. Pitching prospect Chris Murphy was selected to the Major League roster from Triple-A Worcester along with Brandon Walter.
The promotion to the 40-man roster moves Murphy one step closer to the major leagues. The left-handed pitcher spent time in Double-A and Triple-A last season, appearing in a total of 30 games (28 starts).
Murphy, a California native, will continue to work his way to the major leagues in 2023 and he’s not just doing it for himself.
Murphy joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Audacy Original Podcast “The Bradfo Sho” and shared the touching reason behind his motivation to make the major leagues.
“My sister Jessica – she was not a blood-related sister, she was my babysitter growing up for me and my sister. She lived just down the street. We thought of her as a sister and saw her every day. Picked us up from school every day. She went to every single one of my Little League games when she could. She was pretty much the team mom in the dugout and she was diagnosed with cancer when I was in sixth grade,” Murphy said (23:00 in player above). “And I just remember starting to write in my hat in sixth grade so she could see it saying, ‘I play for Jessica.’
“She was a Yankee fan – diehard Yankee fan – and I didn’t know how it worked at that time and it was like, ‘I’m going to save you a ticket to my first major league game.’ And this was in sixth, seventh grade at this time, and she said ‘I’m going to make you promise me that.’ So it was a promise that I held and when she passed away when I was going into high school I put it in her casket, wrote it down, ‘I play for Jessica. I promise to save you a ticket for my first major league game’ and I put that in her casket, and that’s something I’ve carried near and dear to me,” Murphy continued.
Jessica has a special place in Murphy’s heart and that’s helped motivate him to get to where he is today.
“That is the driving force behind why I still play baseball or why I play this game, why I continued to play then,” he said. “I think that’s what maybe separates me. It’s not just for me. I play selflessly and it’s for somebody else. There’s always something I can do to help someone.”
Murphy is anxiously awaiting to make his MLB debut with that ticket for Jessica at the front of his mind. He also saved a ticket from his first professional game for her, which wasn’t as easy.
“I’ve already given my girlfriend like, ‘Hey, you’re in charge of getting that ticket and making sure that I’m not having a mental breakdown over not having it.’ Because I saved a ticket for my first pro game for her and getting a hold of that ticket so they didn’t give it away was one of those things that kind of stressed me out that day,” he said. “So don’t want that to happen again. I think it’ll be a little bit easier when that time comes around.”
The Red Sox added Murphy to their 40-man roster earlier this week to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. The southpaw will continue to work on his craft and hopefully be able to make that major-league debut for Jessica.
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