Daniel Murphy’s future entirely based on Mets lineup production

By Steven Inman

When the Mets offense was going well the first couple weeks Daniel Murphy was the lone Met not hitting. Murph hit .198 with a .258 OBP in April. May has been an entirely different story for both Murphy and the Mets. Murphy has gotten red hot and is hitting .329 with a .376 OBP in May but has been the only Met player to hit this month. Murphy leads the Mets in RBI with 24. Remember Murphy was battling a hamstring injury all March and never really had a Spring Training.

It is no secret if you read this blog that Danny Murphy will not be a Met for much longer. The Mets believe they have his heir apparent currently on the DL in Dilson Herrera. While Murphy in 2015 is clearly the better hitter, the Mets would save $7.5 million by letting go of Murph and would improve defensively.

The question is not if but when Murphy will be elsewhere. The Mets will move Murphy at the trade deadline if they are out of the race. If they are near a playoff spot they can’t justify to the fan base moving one of their better hitters in a pennant race so they will just let him depart in free agency this winter.

Murphy has been a loyal player for the Mets now for eight seasons. A natural third basemen, Murphy has moved from left field, then first base, to second base, back to third and then back to second. The point is despite his defensive shortcomings, Murphy has never been afraid to move to an unfamiliar position if the Mets felt it was in the clubs best interest. That is not something that can be said for a lot of players who have established themselves offensively.

Murphy is one of those rare players that wants to win as bad as David Wright does. The two of them are the “gym rats” on the team so it is really a shame that Murphy’s only winning season to date came in 2008, his rookie season when the ball club failed to make the postseason by a single game.

Murphy’s future is entirely based on the Mets other hitters. If the club continues to not put up a competitive offense, then Murphy will be traded to a contender near the deadline. If Met hitters like Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer can get it going, then the Mets will be contenders and they will need Murphy’s bat here. In that scenario Murphy and Met fans will get the pennant push that they desperately crave.

The Mets being contenders in 2015 has become as simple as this, if they can score runs they will win games. The Mets have the third best record in baseball when scoring 4 runs or more.

Latest David Wright injury could cripple Mets payroll for years

Everyone in the game of baseball is rooting for a quick David Wright return

By Steven Inman

In another sad turn for the Mets All-Star captain, 3B David Wright will be shut down indefinitely with spinal stenosis. It’s a diagnosis that doesn’t come up all that often in baseball but it did force former Met Lenny Dykstra into an early retirement.

The Mets hope that Wright won’t need surgery, instead praying that rehab could fix the issue but that is hardly a guarantee. This is an injury that very few professional players have really dealt with so its really an unknown when the Mets third basemen could be back.

Remember Wright was originally on the DL for a hamstring strain and has only played in eight games this season.

This is a very serious injury that could put one of the best hitters in Mets franchise history on the bench indefinitely. Wright is the all-time hit leader for the Mets with 1,713 knocks but you now have to worry about his baseball mortality. Wright obviously wants to be back and if he can rehab this injury and be back soon he will.

Obviously this is a very gloomy situation for Wright and the 2015 Mets who really can’t score runs. That being said this could be even worse news for future Met teams.

Wright, 32, is due $87 million over the next five seasons. If they are going to be juggling Wright in and out of the lineup for the next couple of years than the contract would obviously look like a major mistake. That isn’t even including the $20 million Wright is owed in 2015, a season that is looking like a lost campaign for Captain America.

If the Mets are going to keep having payrolls around $100 million or less than an injured Wright making $20 million a year will cripple them for the duration of the contract. It will make Wright feel even worse about his situation as fans will be waiting for the day when the Mets stop paying him. It is hard to imagine that scenario when Wright signed his big contract a couple of winters ago.

Although it was before my time as a baseball fan it reminds me of what the Yankees went through with Don Mattingly. Donnie Baseball was one of the best players in the majors in his prime but his team wasn’t winning so he never got the recognition he deserved. Mattingly had serious back problems later in his career that zapped his power and the former MVP retired from the game he loved at the age of 34, right when before his Yankees started their dynasty. Wright has had his power zapped as he has gotten older and now he is facing his toughest challenge as a pro, right when the Mets have enough pitching to compete for playoff spots.

Everyone should hope the Mets get lucky for once and this injury doesn’t keep Wright out as long as many think.

Don’t look now Met Fans, but here come the Nats

By Steven Inman

Harper and his Nats beat the Mets 3 out of 4 at Citi Field a few weeks ago

If you thought the Mets could run away and hide in the NL East you would be wrong.

On May 1st everything was looking peachy for Met fans. The team was 16-8 and owned a six game lead over the division favorite Washington Nationals. A rough stretch by the Amazin’s along with Washington getting hot, has cut the Mets lead in the division to a slim half game.

The Mets have struggled in May but it has been the Nationals strong play that has gotten them back near the top of the division so quickly. Washington has won 12 of their last 15 games thanks to their starting pitching and the one man wrecking crew that Bryce Harper has become.

Harper, 22, is leading baseball in RBI with 37, is second in baseball in homers with 14 and is also hitting .338 on the season. Harper hasn’t had much help offensively in his lineup but really hasn’t needed it. Harper now has more homers and RBI’s than he did all of last year in less than half the games. He has been the MVP of the National League up to this point and if Washington can get Anthony Rendon healthy, they may be too much to handle.

The Mets have to start playing well again if they want to keep the Nationals in second place. The pitching has still been good but the Mets just have been unable to score runs until two games ago. The Mets have scored 19 runs in their last two games. Obviously that won’t continue but if they could just score 4 runs on most nights it would be enough to win.

What do the Mets have to do to keep the Nationals out of first place?

Mets not trading for Troy Tulowitzki is the correct move

By Steven Inman

Every once in awhile BrokeMets will take tweets from fans and turn them into posts if the topic is one that hasn’t been addressed in awhile. Many fans have been asking the same question over the last few weeks.

This is a topic we have covered before but with Troy Tulowitzki pondering a trade request out of Denver it seems relevant to bring up again.

The Mets are not getting Troy Tulowitzki.

Tulo, 30, is hitting .303 with a .310 OBP to go with two homers and 11 RBI in 30 games, hardly eye popping numbers for the 4-time All-Star. Tulo has always been damaged goods but that isn’t the only reason it would be a mistake for a team like the Mets to acquire him.

Tulowitzki is growing frustrated in Denver, his Rockies are currently on a 10 game losing streak

First off Tulowitzki is a career .322/.395/.563 hitter at Coors Field but owns a mere mortal slash line of .275/.348/.469 on the road. Those numbers wouldn’t get better if the shortstop was playing half his games at pitcher friendly Citi Field.

Tulo is on the wrong side of 30 now and while he still may have a few prime years left in him he hasn’t shown he can play 150 games a year. Tulowitzki has played in 150 games just once in his nine year career so far.

Perhaps most importantly here, the Mets really don’t have much money right now so taking on Tulowitzki’s monster contract doesn’t make much sense. Tulo is owed a minimum of $98 million over the next five seasons and that doesn’t even include the $20 million salary he’s making this season.The Mets weren’t thrilled with giving David Wright his big contract and he was home grown. They will not be paying the left side of their infield hundreds of millions of dollars as they continue to age.

Let’s not forget here that the Rockies would ask for a boatload in exchange for their long term star. Trading one of Noah Syndergaard or Steven Matz would not be close to enough to acquire Tulo even if money wasn’t a factor. It will cost three if not four of the Mets top prospects to pry Tulo out of Denver. Rockies owner Dick Monfort won’t move his favorite player even if his baseball people like the deal, unless he believes the Rockies are getting simply too much in return to turn down. That may change however if Tulowitzki publicly demands a trade.

I hope this answers your question. If you have a Met question it can be made into a post by tweeting @brokemets.

Once the forgotten man, Bartolo Colon is shining with the Mets

By Steven Inman 

Colon has enjoyed being a New York Met in 2015, and the fans have enjoyed having him in New York
(Photo by USA Today)

Bartolo Colon came into the 2015 season as the forgotten man. He was coming off last year where he had the highest ERA (4.09) among the Mets qualified starters. Colon is also making $11 million this year making it nearly impossible to get anything of value for him last offseason without eating some salary, so pitchers like Dillon Gee and his more team friendly contract grabbed most of the offseason headlines. There were rumors that the Mets could ship Colon back to the Angels in a salary dump last August but very little talk of a trade since.

Colon just goes about his business. He doesn’t throw exceptionally hard like Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom. He doesn’t have some kind of wicked slider or curveball. He just paints corners with his fastball and continues to rack up innings and most importantly, wins for the Mets.

Bartolo Colon now looks like a bargain, even for the cash strapped Mets as the big, soon to be 42-year old has a 3.30 ERA and a major league leading 6 wins. What is even more insane about Colon’s year to date is he has 40 strikeouts and just one walk, the greatest K-BB ratio to start a season in MLB history.

Colon has been a fun pitcher to watch as his demeanor never really changes even when he’s (rarely) in trouble. His at bats have become a must watch for baseball fans and he has even driven in a few runs.

Colon has been one of the biggest reasons why the Mets are in first place and could be on his way to an All-Star selection. Whether it was by default or not, the Mets did a good job in keeping Bart.