A second baseman who hits between .280 and .300 with a lot of doubles and occasional pop is not something that should be taken for granted. With Daniel Murphy doing all of that while playing solid defense at the position, you have to be pleased at the output you've gotten from him this year.
Of course, I'm not going to stand here and tell you the guy should be untouchable in the offseason. I agree with Doug Plourd's list of unavailable players- Harvey, Wheeler, Wright, d’Arnaud. After that, the door is open, come in and shop around. But frankly, I feel that Murphy has been lumped in with a losing bunch far too often in his time with the club. With his natural position of third base taken for the foreseeable future, he's been shuffled around in order to keep his bat in the lineup. We can all agree the outfield experiment was a disaster, but he has been serviceable elsewhere. I think it's important to remember that there are a lot of reasons the Mets are so bad this year, but Murph is not one of them.
What lies ahead for #28? In my opinion, he's probably going to leave in a trade this winter. He's a nice piece at a good price, and (hopefully) the Mets will be attempting to acquire a power hitting outfielder. I, for one, will not be happy to see him go.
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