Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting that the Colorado Rockies have internally discussed signing free agent Daniel Murphy to play first base for them.
Murphy would actually thrive playing half his games at Coors Field. His pure contact swing and ability to spray the ball gap-to-gap would serve him well in that ballpark. And it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see a bunch of those 40 doubles a year become home runs in that thin air.
The move would make perfect sense for the Rockies as Murphy would slide over from second to first base where he is a much more capable defender, and he would stabilize the top of their order or lengthen the lineup if they chose to bat him fifth or sixth.
Signing Murphy will not cost the Rockies their first round pick as they have the 4th overall selection in next year’s draft which is a protected pick. So all it would cost them is their second round pick. Murphy is projected to sign a 3-4 year deal this offseason worth roughly $12-14 million annually.
Murphy is a .313/.337/.475 hitter at Coors with a .812 OPS.
