Mariners’ Tom Murphy has developed an extensive solitary workout routine
Tom Murphy isn’t one to waste time. The Seattle Mariners shut down operations at their spring training complex in Arizona midway through March, and as those decisions were being made, their starting catcher wasn’t waiting around for the next move. He was still working out.
Two days before the Mariners officially shut the doors in Peoria, Murphy posted a photo to his Twitter account of a long, dirt hill situated under the blaring Arizona sun.
The hill, he asserted in his post, will forever be “one of the greatest tools in any athlete’s professional handbook.”
“Free and unrestricted,” he wrote. “Use your time wisely.”
Murphy, now back at home in rural upstate New York, has made sure to follow his advice the past six weeks, developing an extensive daily workout program he can follow as he waits out the COVID-19 pandemic and ponders baseball’s eventual return.
His home gym setup includes a power rack with a barbell, Olympic-style dumbbells he can put plates on, about 400 pounds worth of plates he intends to add to soon, medicine balls, an Exer-Genie apparatus for resistance training, and of course, a tee and net.
He routinely posts videos and breakdowns of his workouts on his Instagram account for others to follow along.
Working out alone
Though it’s not the same as working out with teammates at an organized training facility, Murphy is comfortable with — and has even developed a liking for — solitary activity.
“I’ve kind of done this sort of training now for a long time,” Murphy said in a conference call Tuesday. “I haven’t had a training partner in the offseason in a very long time — probably three or for years — so really doing things on my own and motivating myself really isn’t much of a difference (from) what I do in the offseason.”
Murphy spends up to two hours per day physically training, and also sneaks in throwing or hitting drills when he is not in meetings with coaches and teammates or spending time with family.
He’s adapted to this new and unusual socially distancing lifestyle well, but the absence of baseball in the spring does take a toll.
“I’m definitely struggling with it,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to kind of mentally stay in at times. The first couple of weeks you had a lot of energy, you were very refreshed, you felt like you were ready to go at any moment.
“But, right now, it almost feels like the game has been taken away too long — that kind of scheduling and the daily process of it all. And not really having a strict schedule is something that I struggle with, just because I like the routine of baseball. I love the every day grind of it all. Without that in my life, it’s a different feeling. It almost feels like the start of a lousy retirement in a way.”
Murphy said he misses the routine the most. The structure. The practice. The daily goals of getting better and having the resources available to achieve them.
“I can only take so many tee swings before I feel like I’m just not doing myself any justice or any service,” he said. “Really, all of the things that we have available to us at the field, and having that time every day to immerse myself in the game is what I really miss.”
Having all of that taken away so suddenly has given him a deeper appreciation of being a major league baseball player, and drives him to keep working.
“Just like anything in life, when it’s taken away from you, you realize how much you love it and how much it’s painful to have it taken away,” Murphy said. “I don’t ever want to leave this game feeling like I didn’t give everything I had each day. This down time has definitely amplified that feeling.”
Ready for return of baseball
Murphy has kept up with the different ideas and proposals for restarting the season that have been discussed online and continues to prepare as if the call for everyone to return to camp is about to come. He’s motivated to get back and prove himself and is willing to make whatever plan the league comes up with work.
“I think anything to kind of be back playing baseball would be good for all of us right now,” Murphy said. “I think about my career. I’m 29. I’m going to be 30 next year. I’m not getting any younger, and this game hasn’t really been kind to older players in the last few years.
“So, for me to think about having to put up with a few minor difficulties in my personal life to be able to hopefully extend my career as long as I can, it’s worth it, in my opinion.”
He hopes when then Mariners do come back together, they will be able to pick back up the progress they made earlier this spring. He felt confident about where the pitching staff was at before the break and continues to try to learn more about his teammates while they are apart.
“I don’t think it will be a total revamping,” Murphy said. “Obviously, I can always watch more video on my guys and kind of learn their nuances — especially the guys I haven’t really caught, which there were plenty of in camp.
“(I can) also develop a personal relationship with guys, making sure that they’re on top of things and seeing where they’re at in their process, just keeping open communication with them.
“When it comes to getting back to what we’re doing, luckily I’ve had enough time with them, I think, during our spring camp to at least have a foundation going into a shortened spring training here, and hopefully we’ll be able to pick up where we left off because I think we were in a really good place as an organization.”
Meanwhile, he will continue checking in on Instagram with the extensive routines he can perform in his own home — and in the woods surrounding it.
“Everything I think I can fit into the day I’m going to,” Murphy said. “It’s still probably not enough to make me feel as comfortable as I’d like to, but that’s just part of it right now, and that’s something I’ll have to overcome.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
