Texas Rangers pull David Murphy off arbitration eligible list
The Texas Rangers have been moving in on arbitration eligible players for the past few weeks. There are five ball stars in total, who have the eligible status during this off-season period. Fortunately for the club, one of the names has been taken off the
list. Successful negotiations have concluded the deal on one major player in the roster.
David Murphy, the club’s dependable option on the diamond has considered letting go of his pursuit for a pay raise, following the Texans’ offer on a one year deal. Murphy was one of the men on the list of players who the Rangers will turn to in hopes of
negotiating new deals with. Darren O’Day, C. J. Wilson, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz are still arbitration eligible and the side will be tending to pack the stars with long term deals.
Murphy pens a one year deal which will be worth $2.4 million. The package which gets a raise from last year’s $427,670, last year is considered a monumental rise in valuation. Murphy deserves nothing less, given his game winning antics with the Rangers.
His batting average hit .291 last season and he made the team look good on the cards with 54 scoring runs. The former Boston Red Sox player mustered up 65 RBI (Runs Batted In) and smashed 12 home runs across the field. His slugging percentage peaked at .449
and his on base percentage went up to .358.
"David has been a tremendous contributor for the Rangers ever since we acquired him from Boston (in 2007)," Assistant General Manager Thad Levine said. "He has been a huge part of the success and development of our organization on the field and in the clubhouse."
The Rangers can now lay back and try to corner out other players on the arbitration list. The recent signing of Adrian Beltre has left room open for sealing deals with existing roster players. The biggest target for the year has to be C. J. Wilson. The 2010,
15 (wins) – 8 (losses) pitcher from last season will enter free agency this year if a contract extension isn’t rendered before the spring training period.
Josh Hamilton, last year’s American League Most Valuable Player will be the next big target of the season. His current contract will expire in 2012 and that has the management making strides to sign him on for another couple of years. Though the likelihood
dims year by year, Texas will have to make their case, this time around.
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