When the New York Mets selected second baseman Daniel Murphy in the 13th round of the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft, it was a move that was not going to make headlines on the back pages of the sports tabloids in New York City. The Mets tabbed Murphy out of tiny Jacksonville University which had produced only one other MLB player previous to Murphy.
Murphy made his Major League debut on August 2, 2008 against the Houston Astros and he went 1-for-4 in a Mets loss. Murphy immediately made a friend with Mets television analyst Keith Hernandez. When Hernandez introduced himself to Murphy he quickly referenced to Hernandez’s appearances during the 1990’s on the hit TV sitcom Seinfeld and bypassed talking about his 17-year MLB career. Murphy would finish the 2008 campaign with a .313 batting average as the Mets finished the year game short of the postseason.
Throughout his MLB career Murphy has done whatever the Mets have asked him to do. Murphy is a third baseman by trade, but with David Wright entrenched there at the hot corner for the Mets, Murphy set out to learn a new position. Murphy has played left field, third base, and first base before he found a home in the Mets infield at second base. Murphy has committed 37 fielding errors in his career which has drawn the ire of fans and media alike, but he is an all-effort guy that is going to leave it all out there on the baseball diamond on a daily basis.
For his six-year Major League Baseball career, Murphy is a career .291 hitter which is eighth in Mets franchise history for career batting average. On the season Murphy is leading the Mets in batting average (.320), on-base percentage (.368), and hits (48).
At the start of the season Murphy missed the season opener to be with his wife Victoria for the birth of their son Noah. In Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners, the players are given three days off for paternity leave. Murphy’s decision to be with his family drew the ire on the New York City radio airwaves from WFAN’s Mike Francesca as well as Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason of “The Boomer and Carton Show”. All three men were critical of Murphy’s decision to leave the team to be with his family, but in typical Murphy fashion he never responded to their ignorance while letting his play do the talking.
Murphy returned to the Mets lineup on April 3 and went 1-for-3 with a base on balls, but New York fell to the Washington Nationals 8-2. Murphy has appeared in 35 games this season for the Mets and in all but six of those contests he has collected at least one hit. For the month of May, Murphy has collected at least one hit in 9 of the Mets 11 ball games. Murhpy has saved his best for the last two games. This past Sunday, Murphy went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs batted in, and two walks as the Mets rallied to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in extra innings. Last night Murphy went 2-for-5 with a stolen base as the Mets took the first game of the Subway Series from the New York Yankees.
Last season Murphy finished the season with 188 hits which was second in the National League. This year Murphy is one pace to become the first Met player since Jose Reyes in 2008 to collect 200 hits in a season.
To do all of the things that Murphy is doing on the baseball diamond you have to show up to park on a daily basis ready to play. In three of the last four seasons Murphy has appeared in at least 155 games as he is a player that Mets manager Terry Collins can count on. Murphy is two years away from becoming an unrestricted free agent and he is a player that the Mets organization should give hard consideration to signing to a multi-year deal. If and when the Mets are able to once again become a contender they are going to need more players like Murphy on their roster. Murphy is not an All-Star caliber player, but he is a player that will give you maximum effort and you can never put a price tag on guys like that.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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