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Seattle Mariners Place Tom Murphy on Injured List, Call Up Brian O'Keefe

Catcher Tom Murphy is out with a sprained left thumb, opening the door for minor league veteran Brian O'Keefe to join the Seattle Mariners.
Sam Connon|
Seattle Mariners Place Tom Murphy on Injured List, Call Up Brian O'Keefe
Seattle Mariners Place Tom Murphy on Injured List, Call Up Brian O'Keefe

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Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners have placed catcher Tom Murphy on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb sprain, the team announced Wednesday.

The move, which was made retroactive to Aug. 14, opened up space for the Mariners to select catcher Brian O'Keefe from Triple-A Tacoma.

Murphy had been serving as the primary backup for starting catcher Cal Raleigh, who has drawn 78 starts behind the dish this season. Murphy, on the other hand, has started 41 games at catcher.

No one besides Raleigh or Murphy has started at catcher for Seattle in 2023, as this marks the first injured list stint by either player this season.

Murphy was batting .290 with eight home runs, 12 doubles, 17 RBI, an .873 OPS and 1.2 WAR before going down with his thumb injury.

O'Keefe made his major league debut at 29 years old in October 2022, going 1-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts across two games.

The St. Louis Cardinals initially selected O'Keefe out of St. Joseph's in the seventh round of the 2014 MLB Draft, but lost him to the Mariners in the 2019 Rule 5 Draft. In 739 career minor league appearances, O'Keefe boasts a .250 batting average, a .776 OPS, 115 home runs, 155 doubles and 413 RBI.

O'Keefe was batting .240 with 22 home runs, 65 RBI and an .836 OPS in 86 games with Triple-A Tacoma before getting called up to the big leagues Wednesday.

Raleigh is starting at catcher for the Mariners in their game against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.

Seattle is 64-55 heading into the back half of the four-game road series, still 2.0 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the race for the third and final AL Wild Card spot.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a staff writer covering baseball for “Fastball on SI.’’ He previously covered UCLA Athletics for On SI’s All Bruins site, and is a UCLA graduate, with his work there as a sports columnist receiving awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for On SI’s New England Patriots site, Patriots Country, and he was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk. Sam lives in Boston.

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