Hello everyone… I’m so glad to be back writing for one of the best New York Mets sites in the blogosphere. Its definitely been awhile! 🙂
As the Mets head into the Winter Meetings, the team has begun to get aggressive in trading Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, and Daniel Murphy.
While Sandy Alderson and company are trying to look for salary relief and a higher payroll flexibility by trading Murphy (as well as Duda and Davis), we really need to look at this and ask ourselves if trading him truly makes the Mets a better team?
One way of looking at this is what type of player would the team receive in return?
If reports are correct, Sandy Alderson is looking to acquire a top-level prospect. If the prospect is a highly-sought after talent, I can see the trade making sense even if we have to wait for the payoff. On the other hand, you have to think that you won’t receive as much production offensively this season if you were to trade him. After all, Murphy led the team in hits and RBIs. Murphy’s one downside is his defense in which he committed a team-leading 16 errors.
I have been a huge critic of Murph for his defensive abilities, but going into next season, I think keeping him makes the Mets better as a club mainly because of his bat. Eric Young Jr is a decent option at second base, but again you don’t get the same kind of offensive production that Murphy has given the Mets and Young isn’t his equivalent offensively. You can’t steal first base.
Hopefully the team keeps Murphy, but stranger things have happened.
