Former Met Daniel Murphy retires
After 12 seasons in the big leagues with four different teams, most recently in 2020 with the Colorado Rockies, former Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy has retired from baseball.
Murphy had been playing for the Salt Lake Bees, the Los Angeles Angels Triple-A affiliate, this season after the Halos purchased his contract while he was playing for manager Wally Backman and the Long Island Ducks in the independent league.
In 38 games in the Pacific Coast League, the 38-year-old slashed .295/.379/.362 with one home run, seven doubles and 25 RBI before calling it a career.
As a Met, Murphy played in 903 games and had a .288 batting average to go along with 62 home runs, 228 doubles, 20 triples, 402 RBI and a .755 OPS spanning seven seasons from 2008-2015.
He was selected as an All-Star in 2014, but it was his 2015 season – specifically the postseason – that Mets fans will remember the most. In 14 games, Murphy hit seven home runs, including an MLB-postseason record six home runs in six consecutive games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, to help New York reach the World Series. He was named the NLCS MVP after the Mets swept the Cubs in four games.
After that magical run, it turned out to be Murphy’s final season in New York as the team elected not to re-sign him in free agency during the offseason. Instead, he ended up signing with the Washington Nationals and proved his postseason success wasn’t a fluke, slashing .329/.380/.550 with 54 home runs in 342 games with the Nats before he was traded to the Cubs during the 2018 season.
During his two full seasons in Washington, Murphy was named an All-Star twice and led the National League in doubles each season while also hitting for more power than he ever did in New York before his record-setting postseason.
Born in Jacksonville, FL, Murphy was selected by the Mets in the 13th round of the 2006 MLB Draft out of Jacksonville University and made his MLB debut on Aug. 2, 2008 against the Houston Astros.
