For better or worse, the New York Mets know all too well the sting of letting a second baseman with a solid but not star-studded track record flee in free agency.
Maybe the baseball gods sent Neil Walker – Daniel Murphy‘s firm replacement – as consolation for perhaps the most unwatchable display of career turnaround in a rival’s uniform. But maybe, just maybe, those deities meant more when they transformed the slap-hitting lefty into an offensive machine.
The Mets second-baseman swap (by way of letting Murphy walk and flipping Jon Niese for Walker) may have been something of a precursor to the events of the ensuing offseason – that is, right about now.