Playoff hero (and then goat) Daniel Murphy looks to be flipping from the New York Mets to their NL East rival, the Washington Nationals:
Daniel Murphy agrees with Nationals 3 year deal https://t.co/MKcInO9jbW
— Jim Bowden (@JimBowdenMLB) December 24, 2015
Source: Daniel Murphy in agreement with #Nationals on three-year deal, pending physical. First reported: @JimBowden_ESPN
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 24, 2015
The signing will cost the Nationals a draft pick, and probably a fair bit of money, too, though the particulars aren’t out yet.
[adinserter block=”2″]Murphy will be 31 next year, and, despite many thinking he was entirely a playoff wonder*, he’s actually been a pretty decent player several years running. He figures to slot in as the Nats’ new second baseman, a position where he frequently looks rather awful – much of his value comes from his versatility.
Still, the signing will improve the Nationals slightly for 2016 at the expense of the Mets (who never seemed serious about bringing Murphy back anyway). Both teams still look like Wild Card contenders on paper, especially given the tanking Phillies and Braves, and probably-also-rather-bad Marlins, each of which the Mets and Nationals will play a disproportionate amount.
*(Murphy was great in the playoffs, but, by the way, Jorge Soler was even better.)
UPDATE: A pretty good get for Murphy, but an understandable price for the Nationals:
Source: Murphy deal with #Nationals is three years, $37.5M. Again, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 25, 2015