Owen Murphy got his first taste of the majors in a hurry, and it wasn’t exactly the kind of debut a young pitcher dreams about.
The Braves’ second 2022 first-round pick to reach the big leagues this season didn’t arrive until July 6, and he wound up with only five appearances and 12 innings on his ledger. That’s a tiny sample, but it still gave Atlanta a look at where he stands after a stop-and-start climb through the system.
Murphy came into the organization as the 16th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, Atlanta’s first first-round selection that year and 19 picks before JR Ritchie in Competitive Balance Round A. The right-hander from Riverside, Illinois signed for $2.55 million, taking a bonus well under the $3.41 million slot value after passing on Notre Dame.
His path through the minors wasn’t a straight line. He debuted in rookie-ball in 2022, but didn’t reach Double-A until 2026, and Tommy John surgery in June 2024 wiped out most of his 2025 season.
Even so, he came back sharp. In seven starts and 30 1/3 innings between the FCL Braves and Rome in 2025, he posted a 1.19 ERA, 2.29 FIP and 2.94 xFIP with 34 strikeouts and just six walks.
He opened 2026 as Battery Power’s fourth-ranked prospect in the organization and carried a fringy rotation-regular projection, but the broader expectation was still more 2027 than 2026.
Then the Braves needed an arm. Martin Pérez went on the IL after being hit by a comebacker during another brutal stretch of starter injuries, and Murphy was the next man up. Before the call, he had logged a 4.44 ERA and 4.67 FIP over 16 starts, 11 of them at Triple-A, though the numbers had been improving as the season went along, with his ERA and FIP in the low 3.00s in the outings before the promotion.
His first big-league assignment was about as stressful as it gets. On July 6 against the Mets, he was handed the 10th inning.
He retired the first two hitters, then hit a batter and allowed a two-run double. Atlanta scratched out one run in the bottom half but still lost 7-6.
He bounced back in his second outing, throwing three perfect innings with three strikeouts. But the rest of the way was rough. In his final three appearances, which included one July start and two September relief outings, he allowed 16 hits and eight runs, seven earned, over eight innings.
By the end, Murphy’s major league line was not pretty: a -0.3 fWAR, 7.49 xERA, 6.93 FIP and 5.37 xFIP across 12 innings. The Braves did get a reminder of his minor league ceiling, though. He was a Triple-A All-Star at Gwinnett, where he put up a 3.07 ERA, 4.23 FIP and a 24.2% strikeout rate.
There were a few things to like in the majors. Walks, which had sometimes been an issue in the minors, weren’t the problem here.
Murphy issued only three in 12 innings, good for a 5.4 percent walk rate. He also produced a 34.7% chase percentage, which is borderline elite.
He threw strikes, and hitters expanded against him.
His stuff also had decent shape, which mattered because he doesn’t bring much velocity. The best version of Murphy showed up in that three-inning outing when Atlanta was already down three runs. He rolled through the Cardinals with a mix of easy flies and strikeouts, though the Braves couldn’t turn that into a rally.
The downside was the contact when hitters did connect. Murphy allowed an 11.6 percent barrel rate, a 92.4 mph average exit velocity and a 48.8 percent hard-hit rate, all well above major league norms. His four-seamer carried a .333 xwOBA against, but his other three pitches all landed in trouble territory, each at least a .400 xwOBA against.
That was tied to shaky command. His secondaries wandered all over the place, and while the fastball was in the zone, he didn’t show much ability to keep it out of dangerous spots. The slider was supposed to live on a corner more consistently, but it drifted over the plate, and the curveball location was a mess.
The result was a ton of fly balls and four homers in his final three outings, with opponents having little trouble lifting the ball against just about everything he threw. That included the pitch sequence that ended his MLB debut, when Luis Torrens hit the game-winning double.
Now the focus shifts to 2027, and to what Murphy looks like after this trial run. The more he pitched for the Braves, the clearer it became that he wasn’t quite ready to hold a major league job. At 23, he still has time, but the offseason matters here.
Four of his first five big-league outings came in relief, so this winter could help define his role. If his command gets to “playable,” if the offspeed stuff starts missing more bats, and if the walks stay down, there’s at least a path to bullpen value even without elite velocity from the right side.
Atlanta is not ready to give up on him as a starter, especially after how good he’s been in that role since returning from Tommy John, but the major league results weren’t encouraging. The Braves may prefer to wait until he dominates the minors again before giving him another shot, though injuries could once again force their hand.
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