{"id":808364,"date":"2026-07-18T14:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808364\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:30:36","slug":"lsu-baseball-loses-freshman-signee-chosen-late-in-mlb-draft-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808364\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU baseball loses freshman signee chosen late in MLB draft | Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of LSU baseball\u2019s<\/a> freshman signees will no longer begin his collegiate career in Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

Anthony Murphy<\/a>, a power-hitting California centerfielder who was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 16th round of the 2026 MLB Draft, said in a pair of social media posts Friday that he was dropping his commitment to the Tigers so he could enroll at Miami instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing committed to LSU has been an incredible honor,\u201d Murphy said, \u201cand I\u2019ll always be thankful for the relationships I\u2019ve built and the support I\u2019ve received.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision was not made lightly and is in no way a reflection of LSU, its coaches or the program. I have nothing but respect and appreciation for everything they\u2019ve done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a high school junior, Murphy led a team with three first-round MLB draft picks in home runs and batting average. The 6-foot, 185-pound leadoff hitter was a fringe top-100 player in MLB.com<\/a>\u2019s draft rankings after his senior season and became one of nine LSU signees who were selected in the draft. But his late-round slot made him a candidate to pass on the pros and play college baseball instead.<\/p>\n

Had Murphy decided to join the Tigers, he would\u2019ve faced a roster crunch<\/a> and a logjam at centerfield. LSU was projected to have more than 40 players on its 2027 roster before Friday and a likely competition for the starting centerfield spot. A Tulane transfer (Jason Wachs) and two other highly rated freshmen (Malachi Washington and Dominic Santarelli) are the top candidates for that role.<\/p>\n

Murphy will again be eligible for the MLB draft after his sophomore season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of LSU baseball\u2019s freshman signees will no longer begin his collegiate career in Baton Rouge. Anthony Murphy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-808364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}