Wait, what?
That’s exactly what Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests the Mets do with Daniel Murphy next season.
The Mets should pay Murphy roughly $8 million to be a utility man next year, or really a super-utility man. Their defenseless version of Ben Zobrist.
His reasoning is that a team that already struggles on offense and plans to contend next season, should not be trading the National League’s hits leader over the last two seasons. He adds that the Mets should be looking to add quality players for 2015 and not subtracting them – If there was any truth to them being contenders next season.
“That is unless you are trading him for other hitters who can help in 2015,” Sherman says, though he doesn’t believe that’s possible..
“A club that wanted Murphy would either trade pitching — and that is not an area the Mets need to further solidify — or prospects. And why would a contending team, like the Mets intend to be next year, want more prospects?”
Sherman adds that If the Mets actually turn out to be contenders, they can retain Murphy all season and decide how to handle his free agency afterward. And if they are not contenders, then they could deal him in July for a return probably not all that different from what they could get this offseason.
However, Sherman contends that the Mets handling this offseason as if they’re contenders is mostly folly.
“We are just a few weeks away from the Mets’ now-familiar offseason mantra — the one in which they proclaim plans to be contenders the following year and there is no clamp on their wallet to make that happen.”
“Mets fans will be forgiven for believing in this and the tooth fairy equally — fool me once, shame on you, fool me several times, well, you understand.”
There is no way that the Mets retains Murphy for $8 million to be a utility player who gets 300 at-bats next season. And quite frankly, I doubt that Murphy would sign on for that. Then of course there’s the matter of Murphy not having enough glove to fill a super utility role. Isn’t that a prerequisite for being a super utility player?
But who knows… There are some fans who believe that Sandy Alderson gave Chris Young $7.25 million to be an insurance policy for Juan Lagares because that was the spin after the Mets cut him loose.
So if that’s true, then keeping Murphy for those same reasons may not be such a bad idea, right?
After all, at least Murphy has given the Mets $16 million in value this season compared to $1 million for that other guy – that other insurance policy.
In the end, I believe that Murphy won’t be with the Mets and that’s mostly because they can’t spare the $8 million it will cost to keep him. Get used to this, because you’ll see it again and again as more and more young players get into their arbitration years.
