The Daniel Murphy Experiment

Daniel Murphy has put every Mets fan in an interesting spot. He is the player you want to root for – seems like a nice guy, everyone says he’s a hard worker, and he internalizes poor performances which gets him sympathy. The only problem is that 2009 has left us all with the question of whether or not Murphy can cut it as an every day player.

Now, I am a firm believer that mistakes on defense have a negative effect on your offensive performance. If that is actually true, then it’s really no surprise that Murphy hit .266 with 12 home runs this past season. I don’t know who had the brilliant idea of taking a career infielder and allowing him to learn how to play the outfield at the major league level – but it clearly did not work. I don’t remember how many games Murphy’s miscues in the outfield cost the Mets, but it was at least two Johan Santana starts (and with this rotation, those are games the Mets can not afford to lose).

I think the front office is divided on how to handle Murphy. Right now, he’s an adequate utility player but someone somewhere believes that Murphy has the potential to hit .300 with 20-30 home runs. That would be great – but I don’t know many people who agree. From what I’ve gathered, the Mets are high enough on Ike Davis that they don’t want to block his entrance to the majors with a big first baseman signing (Side note – I really hope Davis and Josh Thole are the real deal. Anyone else remember Alex Escobar?). In that case, I could live with Murphy at first if his defense continues to improve and his numbers increase slightly.

Part of my frustration with Murphy also stems from the fact that it doesn’t seem like the Mets are finding him the right guys to work with in order to improve. I think Murphy’s defense at first base was much better than it was in the outfield, but there is still room for improvement. I know that Keith Hernandez and John Olerud were both lefties as fielders, but they were also both Gold Glovers. And they could both help Murphy out at the plate as well, particularly Olerud because his production was more similar to what the Mets are looking for out of Murphy. I hope it all comes together for Murphy he can at least make it through 2010 with some decent trade value if nothing else.