New York Mets: Murphy or Cespedes – A Clash of Contracts
With the offseason looming, the New York Mets have a series of big contractual decisions to make, the most important being their decision to resign Yoenis Cespedes or Daniel Murphy. The choice is not clear-cut in any way. Murphy has been on the team since his debut in 2008, and Cespedes was a mid-season steal that provided the lift needed for the team to get to the playoffs. Each player undoubtedly has his own personal upside, but ultimately the Mets will be forced to make a choice.
A player like Murphy, who debuted with the team and has suffered with the organization is a commodity in today’s game, as you don’t see as many guys playing with the team they debuted with for more than five years or so. He is a home grown talent, picked at age 21 in the thirteenth round of the 2006 draft by the Mets out of Jacksonville University. The Mets thrive on this aspect of their player development system. This year has seen many of the Mets’ minor league prospects bursting onto the scene and causing trouble for opposing teams.
Murphy was in the same shoes in 2008 when he debuted on August 2. He played 49 games for the team, batting .313 and just exceeding the maximum limit for at bats while still being under rookie status with 131 at bats.
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Since his debut, Murphy has been a solid glove in the field with a career .979 fielding percentage. Murphy is the man on the bench that you always believe will find a way to get on base and move along the order. His bat has been consistently slightly above average with a career batting average of .288 and 62 home runs over his seven years. He is unafraid of playing positions to which he is not accustomed. This is apparent when you see he has played seven positions during his tenure in the league, the only two missing being catcher and pitcher.
He has been on a historic tear this postseason with a record six home runs over a six-game span. He is batting .529 with sixteen hits in just nine games. There is no cooling him off right now.
On the other side is Yoenis Cespedes, the 30-year-old outfielder with a rocket launcher for an arm. “La Potencia” (Spanish for “power”) was signed in March of 2012 by the Oakland Athletics. In his rookie season, he batted .292 with 23 home runs and came in second place in Rookie of the Year voting behind Mike Trout. He quickly showed why he was touted as “arguably the best all-around player to come out of Cuba in a generation” by Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus.
His arm was among the strongest and most accurate in recent history. After winning the 2013 Home Run Derby at Citi Field and 2014 Home Run Derby at Target Field, teams began to see Cespedes as a real power threat at the plate. The rest of the 2014 season and offseason saw him move cities twice, going from Oakland to Boston and then from Boston to Detroit. Cespedes spent time from the onset of this season to July 31 with the Tigers, when he was traded to the Mets for minor leaguers Luis Cessa and Michael Fulmer.
“Arguably the best all-around player to come out of Cuba in a generation”
Cespedes didn’t waste time showing the Citi Faithful that he was the right fit for them. In his first 41 games, he batted .309 with 17 home runs, 42 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .691. Since getting into the playoffs, he is batting just above .250 with nine hits in nine games and two home runs. However, his bat remains susceptible to swinging at bad pitches and over-swinging on pitches he could easily just slam for solid base hits.
Cespedes has only been in the National League for less than half a season. His torrential performance in his first month was a result of National League pitchers not knowing how to approach him. Toward the close of the regular season, opposing pitching began to find his weaknesses and limit his output. He is not yet fully proven in the National League, and opponents will have a full offseason to prepare to face him. While on the other hand, Murphy has been in the National League and been able to attack pitchers and have success against them.
Each player is a star in his own right. But the Mets can only choose one man to retain, as Cespedes could be looking for a nine-figure contract and Murphy will undoubtedly be looking for a high number as well.
The soundest choice for the Mets for continued success and prosperity would be to resign Murphy and make a hard run at Cespedes, but not be upset if they miss out on him. The Mets will need to make many decisions in the next few years as their young players negotiate their first true major league contracts. The majority of these first-time negotiators will be their starting pitching staff.
They would be smart if they decide to keep Murphy, who will get a large contract, but not in the league of nine figures. His slightly reduced salary will give the Mets more money to give to their stars of tomorrow, like Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz and Michael Conforto, to name a few.
Murphy’s recent postseason success is doing nothing but helping his chances of cashing out big in the offseason. The Mets can’t go out of their comfort zone when making a decision on which All-Star to sign. They must make a decision with their future in mind because many of their young stars will be hitting their primes in the same span of time and will be negotiating big contracts soon.
Ultimately, their long-term plan and eventual postseason result will play into their decision. If it is their goal to retain three to four of their young power arms in the next five years, it is Murphy they should target. If it is two to three they hope to keep while focusing on the offensive side of the ball, Cespedes is their man. I have faith in the Mets front office to make a decision based on all of their available information.