Fishtown native and minor-league ballplayer dies at 27

A Fishtown native who worked his way up to pitching for the Oakland A’s minor league system passed away suddenly on Monday.

Sean Murphy, 27, died on Monday, the Oakland A’s announced. They did not list a cause of death.

“The A’s are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Sean Murphy,” Billy Beane, executive vice president of baseball operations for the Oakland Athletics, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”

Murphy was a Fishtown kid who played baseball at the FishtownAthletic Club,went to St. Laurentius,graduated from North Catholic High School andwas laterdraf­ted by the Oak­land A’s in the 33rd round of the first-year play­er draft in 2010while he was at Key­stone State Col­lege.

“My dream is play­ing in the World Series with Fishtown on my back,” Murphytold the Fishtown Star in 2013 while prepping to return to spring training.

The 6’6″, 220-pound, right-handerMurphy threw a 93 mile-per-hour fastball.

According to the A’s:

Murphy “compiled a 32-32 record and a 4.26 ERA in 105 games, including 81 starts, in six seasons in the A’s farm system. Murphy missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow Sept. 26, 2014. He won 11 games in 2012 and 10 games in 2013 and reached as high as Triple-A in 2014 when he made seven starts for Sacramento,” the team said.

Murphy was suspended for 50 games in February for a second positive test of a banned substance classed as a “drug of abuse,” theAssociated Press reported. The drug in question was not disclosed, but that list includes opiates like heroin and oxycodone, marijuana and cocaine.