I’m a big Daniel Murphy fan. I love his determination, I’m impressed by his plate approach, I believe in his value as an offensive player, and his enthusiasm is totally awesome. That said, I just don’t see him as part of the master plan. I’ve heard and read all the quotes about him being the everyday second baseman next season, but I’m not at all thrilled at the prospect of that.
There seemed to be some interest in Murphy during the Winter Meetings in Dallas, and to be honest I was excited at the prospect of shipping him to a team where he would be allowed to play at his natural third base position or even makes his bones as a designated hitter in the AL.
We’ve already tried unsuccessfully to make Murphy a left fielder and then a first baseman. His two attempts to play second base both resulted in season ending injuries that could have been avoided had Murphy understood how to set himself up at second base and field his position properly. Do we really want to risk a third season ending injury?
Murphy has very good value right now, especially for someone coming back from an injury. He was fifth in the NL with a .320 batting average before he got hurt last season, and that is nothing to scoff at.
His .809 OPS ranked high among first basemen and in parts of two season he has stroked 66 doubles and a combined 90 extra-base hits in about 900 at-bats.
Here’s the problem the way I see it, the Mets have been killing this kid and hurting his progress by trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. No matter how hard they keep trying they can’t seem to make Murphy fit in.
He is much too valuable as a hitter to just let him squander on the bench. So why not do what’s best for him and best for the team and trade him for something we need – like a catcher perhaps – or a centerfielder?
Murphy is not getting any younger and after four years of jerking him around he’ll be 27 on Opening Day. Isn’t it time to just bite the bullet and actively shop him to the highest bidder?
