It’s official. The New York Mets have extended a qualifying offer to second baseman Daniel Murphy. He will now have seven days to decline or accept the one year, $15.8 million offer.
The Mets will receive a compensation pick between the first and second rounds in next year’s draft if Murphy declines the offer as expected and signs with another team.
Drafted back in 2006 as a 13th-round pick out of Jacksonville University, the last year the Mets were in the playoffs before this current run. He made his MLB debut on August 2nd, 2008. As of August 9, 2008, Murph was the fifth Mets rookie to record 10 hits in his first 20 at-bat’s. It was a sign that he had quite a potent bat, and could find himself some success at the professional level.
“I’ve been in this organization since 2006. It makes me feel old to say it. I think that’s like nine years, if I count and use my toes right,” Murphy said. It’s a long time But I truly, truly have enjoyed my time in this organization. I feel blessed to have been a Met this long.”
The Mets were expected to offer Murphy the one-year qualifying offer and team officials expect him to decline this offer as he is sure to find himself multi-year deals on the table after his NLDS and NLCS success carried this team to the World Series.
“I like it here, I’d like to come back. We’ll have to see. I don’t think there are going to be 30 teams offering me a deal. So we’ll have to see. That will probably dwindle it down.”
Murphy became the first player to homer in six consecutive playoff games, breaking the record of five set by Carlos Beltran of the Houston Astros in 2004. His seven home runs in a single postseason put him in a four-way tie for fourth in baseball history.
Since his World Series play it seems as the cries to bring him back have died down. Between his cold streak after carrying the offense, and the miscues in the field, it was a rough World Series for the Met second baseman.
However, it should be noted that they likely would not have gotten anywhere near being able to play in those games if not for his performance in prior postseason games.
The Mets are said to be comfortable going with some combination of Dilson Herrera, Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada in the middle infield. This though is provided that the Mets bring in a big-bat to supplement the weaker offense that these players bring in compared to Murphy, especially with the likelihood of Yoenis Cespedes taking his talents and walk-up music elsewhere as well.
It’s sure to be one crazy off-season with a good amount of turnover from this National League Championship team. The Mets have the core for continued success and just need to do some tweaking here and there as well as strengthening the offense to continue to make them the force to be reckoned with that they were in the second half of this past year.
