The Mets announced that Daniel Murphy has been placed on the DL and that Dilson Herrera will be called up from Double-A Binghamton.
The 20-year old Herrera skips Triple-A and goes straight to Go. He was having an incredible season at Bingo, slashing at .333/.401/.504 with ten home runs and 49 RBI in 237 at.bats. He of course, was the second-base prospect acquired with Vic Black in the Marlon Byrd trade.
Herrera will join the Mets before Friday’s series opener against the Phillies, replacing Murphy.
Now the Mets get their first look at Herrera, who had to be added to the 40-man roster anyway to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft this winter. Can he make the jump? The Mets GM certainly thinks so.
“He’s starting to control the strike zone a little more in Binghamton,” Alderson recently said of Herrera in an interview with MLB.com. “He’s shown surprising power for his size and age. … His athleticism, his body type allows him to hit for power. He’s aggressive and generates a lot of bat speed.”
While he has spent most of his time at Binghamton at second base, Herrera is capable of playing both middle-infield positions.
“Usually when you see kids his age getting to this point, the tendency seems to be some guys being more pull hitters than anything else,” Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez said in June. “What he does is have plate discipline and an ability to drive the ball the other way. That’s what makes him successful.”
Herrera should play every day at least until Murphy returns from the DL. Murphy has been out since leaving Sunday’s game with a calf strain and was leading the NL in hits and hoping to reach 200.
Sadly for Murph, that won’t happen. But worse yet for him, this bold move could signal that his time with the Mets is drawing to an end as he’s expected to earn as much as $8 million in arbitration. The team seems eager to move on without their only All Star this season.
Herrera will get the next four weeks to show the Mets what he could offer them. It’s been a meteoric rise for this exciting player who went from Single-A to the Major Leagues in under five months. I can’t recall the last time a Mets prospect did that.
Welcome to the Show, Dilson.
