As last season ended, a lot of discussion arose about the future of Daniel Murphy as it puritans to the Mets.
Murphy is entering the final year of his contract, and he’s been with the big club since 2008, which makes him one of the longest tenured members of the club. In more than 2,800 at-bats as a Met, Murphy has hit .290 with a .333 on base percentage. His 190 doubles is eighth on the Mets’ all-time list, and he’s just three behind Mike Piazza, 18 behind Carlos Beltran, 22 behind Edgardo Alfonzo, 24 behind Howard Johnson and 32 behind Jose Reyes.
The moral of the story? If he repeats last season, when he amassed 37 doubles, he will sit in second place behind David Wright.
The achilles heals of Murphy are usually focused on his defense, but his .333 on base percentage should be better if he worked on his patience. The bottom line is the guy just doesn’t walk. His 187 walks in 2,855 at-bats accounts for just 6.5 percent of the time. Defensively, he can be a liability, which is a problem in the middle of the infield. You’d like to have seen improvement over the past couple of years, but it just hasn’t been there. He had 15 errors in 2012, 16 errors in 2013 and 15 errors in 2014. He is what he is defensively, adequate at best.
There’s no doubting his bat, though. The guy can rake, which will make him a valuable commodity once he hits the open market, which I strongly believe will happen following the 2015 season. With kids on the way, Murphy, who turns 30 on April 1, is not a keystone piece of the future. Unless he’s reasonable with his contract demands, I say he walks for greener pastures next winter.
Could the Mets do worse than Daniel Murphy at second base? Absolutely. But, do they need him to move in a positive direction? I say no.
