Player Profile: Daniel Murphy

Daniel Murphy played his way to his first All Star appearance in 2014, but he is underrated in many respects given his position. Murphy is a below average defensive second baseman, but his value comes with the fact that he can play multiple positions. In 2014 Murphy logged innings at third base and first base, and has experience playing left field. Daniel Murphy will never win and MVP and most likely will never win a gold glove award, but he can be a pivotal and important part of any team.

A comparable player to Daniel Murphy is Ben Zobrist, who is much more valuable than Murphy given the variety of positions and his high on base percentage he obtains every season and has much higher power numbers. Murphy is entering his age 30 season and his trade value may be higher than ever. He will be a free agent after the 2015 season so the Mets may be willing to trade him.

An important aspect of the game for non power hitting players is strikeout rate. Over the course of the past four seasons, Murphy has struck out just 12.8% of the time. Over the course of the last three seasons Murphy has played an average of 153 games, showing that he can remain healthy for an entire season and stay consistent. Over that same span of three seasons he posted a .288/.327/.407 slashline equating to a 107 OPS+. He can hit for some power (Average of 9 home runs and 38 doubles per season) and can swipe a few bags (Average of 15 per season). He reached career highs in home runs and stolen bases in 2013 when he hit 13 and swiped 23 respectively.

Daniel Murphy would make a lot of sense for a lot of different teams. Second base is a position that lacks good hitters. Although it is headlined by names like Robinson Cano, Jose Altuve, and Ian Kinsler, only about a third of the league has an OPS over .700. Competing teams like the Orioles, Blue Jays, and Diamondbacks may be interested in Murphy's services.