According to MLB Network, Jerry Manuel has named Daniel Murphy to be the club's everyday leftfielder. This is somewhat of a surprise seeing as the platoon of Murphy and Fernando Tatis had been discussed most of the winter.
This is a move that makes a big statement. It shows that Manuel has enough confidence in Murphy to handle the responsibility of being an everyday outfielder and that he can hit both lefties and righties. The move also gives the Mets a much needed boost to their bench where Tatis will play a pivotal role. They did not address the bench outside the addition of Alex Cora.
Murphy excelled in his first big league season, demonstrating his ability to work counts and hit to all fields. He is certainly the type of player that Mets fans can root for a number of reasons. He's a gamer; He's home-grown; He's got a little bit of Kevin Youklis in him - the type of player the Mets have been lacking in recent years.
Good call by Jerry makign this announcement early on in Spring Training. Hopefully it gets results we're looking for.
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I like this move by the Mets. I personally don't think that Tatis has anything left in the tank. He will be like all of the other Mets bench signings in the past...have a great first year then tank the next. IE. Julio Franco, Chris Woodward. There are others just can't think of them off the top of my head. Murphy is a guy who seems to be a hard nose player which is something that the Mets have lacked since Ty Wigginton. He hits to all fields and I'm sure that his fielding will improve by playing every day. We've gone with the broken down outfielder the past 2 years and it's hurt us. Give the youth a chance and see what happens.
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