I made a joking reference this morning to playoff hero/free agent-to-be Daniel Murphy getting overpaid this offseason. It happens fairly often to decent players who suddenly go crazy in the playoffs and it wouldn’t shock me if it happened to Murphy too. Even if front offices are a lot smarter these days than they used to be.
But Murphy’s heroics aren’t likely to sway too many front offices. Certainly not the ones with a greater analytic bent. The Mets are one of those. And even if Murphy is playing the hero right now -- creating MurhphyMania, really -- the Mets aren’t going to change their minds on him. From Kristie Ackert of the Daily News:Two team sources said again Sunday that Murphy, despite his postseason heroics, is not in Mets’ future plans.
“He’s been great, really great,” one source said, “but it changes nothing.” . . . The team feels strongly that Dilson Herrera will eventually develop into their second baseman of the future or that Wilmer Flores could be play there in the meantime.
Murphy is an above-average hitter who can play at least three positions. He’s a nice piece to have on a team on a short term deal for less than $10 million. Much the way the Mets have had him for the past seven seasons. But he’s not the sort of guy you give big free agent money to. And you likely don’t even give him a qualifying offer which would double his salary for next year. As Joel Sherman of the Post writes, many in the game think he’s going to get a Chase Headley kind of deal. Even if that’s a tad high -- seems high to me anyway -- the notion of going multiple years and well into eight figures for Murphy seems a bit much, especially for a budget-conscious team like the Mets.
So nothing surprising here. Except for the fact that some Mets executives decided to actually tell a reporter what they’re thinking about such things right now, as Mets fans are going absolutely crazy. Let ‘em have some fun with this for a while, maybe?