“He knows everything about me:” On the relationships that tee up a breakout year for Sean Murphy

MESA, Ariz. — Jesús Luzardo can remember one time he and Sean Murphy weren’t on the same page.

The A’s top prospects were in Northwest Arkansas, playing the Naturals with the Double-A Midland RockHounds. Luzardo was pitching, Murphy behind the plate.

Luzardo doesn’t remember who was up to bat — “a big guy, their No. 4 hitter” — but he remembers the count. He and Murphy decided during their pregame rundown that absolutely no 0-2 fastball would be thrown up to this guy. Luzardo got him to 0-2, and Murphy called for a fastball up in the zone. Luzardo shook him off; it must’ve been a mistake.

They met on the mound for Murphy to plead his case. He had a good read on the batter’s swing, he said. They could blow a fastball by him. Luzardo went with it.

“He hit it out,” Luzardo said this week, recalling the exchange from his locker at Hohokam Stadium. He remembers shooting Murphy a dead stare, and Murphy shrugging in exasperation. “That was extremely on me. ..It was and wasn’t. But it was because I threw it. I remember butting heads about it, but after we talked about it and just laughed.”

Murphy wouldn’t let Luzardo shoulder any blame. He wears his mistakes, but the third-round pick from the 2016 draft out of Wright State  has rarely made any in his rapid rise through the Oakland A’s system.

“He takes pride in it,” Luzardo said of Murphy’s game calling. “He takes responsibility for what he puts down. That was probably the only time that’s ever happened, where he called something and it went south … And I’m not mad about it.”

Some may wonder if a 25-year-old with 21 big league games of experience (including last year’s AL Wild-Card game) is ready to shoulder the lion’s share of catching duties on this A’s team gunning for a division title and beyond. Carlos Perez, at age 29 and with parts of four seasons in the majors under his belt, is a non-roster invitee and the most veteran catcher in camp. Fellow rookies Austin Allen (26) and Jonah Heim (24) are the other two catchers behind Murphy on the active roster depth chart.

Age is just a number, though. In fact, the A’s were hoping to get Murphy in the game sooner, but a slew of knee injuries stunted Murphy’s rapid ascent to the big leagues. He finally arrived last September and more than held his own.

His timing couldn’t have been better. Luzardo and A.J. Puk, two rookies being counted on heavily to bolster the rotation this season, evolved and synched with Murphy in the minor leagues. The trio know each other’s tendencies.

“That helps,” manager Bob Melvin said. “That speeds up the process and now you’re just out there playing.”

In 2019, Murphy caught Luzardo in five of his six outings; he caught Puk five times in his 10 appearances. That familiarity can’t be undervalued.

“It was basically, we both prepared a little more up here,” Luzardo said. “But in terms of conversations, we’ve done this before. He knows where I’m throwing my pitches, he knows everything about me.”

Murphy is fluent with one corner of the staff, but how does affinity for game calling translate to the pitchers he isn’t as in tuned with? After all, veterans Mike Fiers, Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea are all back and expected to anchor the rotation and the bullpen is loaded with veterans.

Luzardo points to Murphy’s attention to detail throughout his minor league career. He was always in the film room, compiling detailed notes about every hitter. The A’s are confident that Murphy’s good habits will ease his transition in the big leagues.

But building that same level of rapport is still an adjustment.

“They’ll see the work he puts in will help build the rapport,” bullpen coach Marcus Jensen said. “He’s proven himself throughout the minor leagues, but he’s going to have to continue to prove himself up here. But the work ethic is certainly not in question, the work ethic is certainly not in question, it’s a matter of adjusting to the game.”

Murphy’s strong framing ability is one element that might accelerate his big league transition, veterans on the A’s staff have noticed.

“I think the framing part is the hardest part and he had it already,” A’s reliever Joakim Soria said. “A young catcher, to be able to hold Liam Hendriks’ slider and make it a strike, that’s what makes a young catcher special. The ability to make good pitches strikes.”

A quick search into Statcast’s database doesn’t flash the most promising framing numbers for Murphy, out of qualified catchers to take more than 200 pitches last season, Murphy converted 46.9 percent of non-swing pitches into called strikes, which ranks 61st. But consider the sample size.

Murphy’s stats will surely trend up — he has a promising low-to-high framing ability, in particular. Jensen has been working with Murphy and the catchers this spring on framing.

“He’s real mobile,” Jansen said. “So he has good flexibility, which allows him to control the bottom of the zone well. Any time you can open up the bottom of the zone and get pitches down there, it opens up the breaking ball.”

Here’s an example: Luzardo threw a fastball to Seattle’s Austin Nola, who took it 3-2 for a strikeout with exceptional framing from Murphy.

Here’s another from Luzardo’s debut, catching Houston’s Yordan Alvarez looking at a borderline fastball in the low corner.

This means that if a pitcher were to throw a borderline pitch below the zone on fastball, a hitter has to honor that pitch. Suddenly the breaking ball with a downward trajectory becomes more effective. Murphy’s 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame creates a big target, too.

“As a bigger bodied guy, in terms of your size, you can control more of home plate and you don’t have to move as much,” Jensen said. “With mobility and flexibility you can work top to bottom, side to side.”

Framing and game-calling may be more subtle elements of Murphy’s skill set, but he also has a plus arm that should scare the running game out of opposing teams and as a hitter appears poised for a breakout performance. He hit four home runs in 60 plate appearances for the A’s — he has “Stupid juice,” as Luzardo put it — and hit .245. He was promoted after batting .301 with 10 home runs in just 140 plate appearances at Triple-A Las Vegas.

“He showed it right away,” Melvin said of Murphy taking over the primary catching duties last summer. “It’s good that he got off to a good start because he can relax a little bit. Sometimes the hardest part about getting to the big leagues for the first time is, do I belong here? Am I good enough?”

The A’s trust that Murphy will be.