Patrick Murphy becomes 154th Major League Lugnut
On September 18th, 2020, Patrick Murphy made his Major League debut with a scoreless relief outing of 1 1/3 innings (and three strikeouts!) for the Toronto Blue Jays. In the process, he became the fifth former Lugnuts player to make his MLB debut this year (joining Dany Jiménez, Edward Olivares,
On September 18th, 2020, Patrick Murphy made his Major League debut with a scoreless relief outing of 1 1/3 innings (and three strikeouts!) for the Toronto Blue Jays. In the process, he became the fifth former Lugnuts player to make his MLB debut this year (joining Dany Jiménez, Edward Olivares, Angel Perdomo and Alejandro Kirk) and the 154th all-time.
Murph in a nutshell: The right-hander was drafted by the Blue Jays out of Hamilton High School (Chandler, Ariz.) all the way back in 2013, discovered while they were scouting his teammate, Mitch Nay (who excelled for the Lugnuts in 2014 and returned in 2017 while recovering from a series of surgeries). Murphy battled a series of injuries and underwent his own series of surgeries, reaching the Nuts in 2016 and then serving as the team's top starting pitcher in 2017.
Patrick Murphy is the eighth member of the 2016 Lugnuts and the sixth member of the 2017 Lugnuts to reach the Majors.
He seemed to be working his way toward an MLB debut last year with Toronto, dominating for New Hampshire -- until umpires told him he had an illegal delivery that needed to be changed. Now it's legal, and here he is in the Majors at age 25.
The overall math: 154 of 804 total Lugnuts have made the Major Leagues: 19%.
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With Murphy becoming the fifth former Lugnut to reach the Majors this year, here's how it compares to all prior years:
1996: Inaugural season, no Nuts made the Majors
1997: Two players (the first ever being José Santiago)
1998: Three (including Carlos Beltrán, the greatest ever MLB Lugnut to date)
1999: Six (building momentum)
2000: Three
2001: Three
2002: NINE
2003: Six
2004: Seven
2005: Eight
2006: TEN
2007: Nine
2008: Four, showing the result of a bit of a talent drought
2009: Two
2010: Just one player, Adalberto Méndez
2011: ELEVEN, out of nowhere!
2012: Seven
2013: Six
2014: Six
2015: Eight
2016: Six
2017: TWELVE (Richard Ureña, Jairo Labourt, and Carlos Ramirez all debuted Sept. 1st)
2018: Eleven (showing how rich the Blue Jays' talent had become)
2019: Nine (including Vladdy Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette)
2020: Five (and counting!)
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