According to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Colorado Rockies are close to a deal with free agent left-handed second baseman Daniel Murphy.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports confirmed this report, adding that it is a two-year, $24 million deal.
Murphy, the longtime former Met, took a big step back last year after two All-Star caliber seasons with the Nationals. In an injury-delayed 2018, he hit .300/.341/.442 with a 107 wRC+ and 0.0 fWAR with the Nationals. He was traded to the Cubs midseason and performed a little better there, hitting .297/.329/.471 with 0.9 fWAR. According to Baseball Reference, he was worth a dismal -0.9 WAR.
However, between 2016 and 2017, he hit .334 with a .956 OPS and was worth 10.1 fWAR.
Murphy, 33, is a below-average fielding second baseman. As Rosenthal noted, Murphy will likely be expected to play mostly first base, even with DJ LeMahieu entering free agency, because of his poor defense at second. He has played 834 of his career games at second, compared to 225 at first.
Colorado should be a good fit for Murphy, as his fantastic contact skills will play very well in the thin air of Coors Field.
