The San Francisco Giants declined the $4 million team option on catcher Tom Murphy‘s contract, the team announced on Monday.
Injured for the majority of his tenure in San Francisco, Murphy, 34, played 13 games with the Giants over the course of two seasons. All 13 came in 2024 before he injured his knee that May while fielding a ball in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
He suffered a herniated disc in his back during the first few days of spring training in 2025 and missed the entire season as a result. He has been vocal about his frustrations over how his Giants tenure played out.
In August, Murphy described his time in San Francisco as an “absolute nightmare” and claimed in an interview with the Chronicle that doctors initially misdiagnosed his back injury as an oblique strain after he experienced discomfort the first day of camp. Issues with treatment on his back at an outside clinic prolonged his rehab, he said, claiming malpractice.
“I feel like I’ve been through every ounce of negative emotion that you could wrap around this,” Murphy said in August. “I’m just not happy about it. I’m embarrassed, resentful, angry, you know, like all these things.
“I’m trying to find some light in it. Obviously, it hasn’t been easy on that front. I’ve watched a lot of people leave the game, and it’s hard for somebody to go out on top. But this really feels like it’s as low as I can get. I feel bad for the organization, for the fans, for all that I wasn’t able to contribute in the ways that I knew I could for this team.”
The Giants, under then-president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, signed Murphy to a two-year, $8.25 million deal with a team option before the 2024 season. He was brought on primarily for his bat after hitting .292 in 2022-23 with the Seattle Mariners.
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