Curtis Granderson, No, But Daniel Murphy, Yes

Earlier in the week as my hiatus from the blog was coming to a close I made the time to type out a simple post entitled “The New York Yankees Don’t Need Curtis Granderson.” That post went over about as well as Greg Bird swinging at the first pitch in the bottom of the 9^th inning down by two runs to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon, as you could imagine. While I outlined, albeit in an unpopular fashion, how Curtis Granderson just didn’t make sense for the Yankees I would be remiss to point out that Daniel Murphy of the Washington Nationals makes a whole lot of sense for the Yankees this season, and for more reasons than you may think. 

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. Yes, calling for one outfielder shortly after dismissing another can be seen as playing both sides of whatever, but keep in mind that this post dismissing the need for Granderson was written before the news broke that Aaron Judge received a cortisone shot and would need longer than three weeks of rest before he started swinging a bat. Also, Murphy would be more than just an outfield option for the Yankees as he can play first base as well. Please keep this in mind before sending your hate mail, comments and tweets directed my way, assuming that you read the article and didn’t just respond to the headline like a lot of people do. Anyway, back on topic.  

As we enter play last night the Nationals found themselves eight games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East and 6.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies (Phillies led by a mere .001 percentage point for the first Wild Card) in the National League Wild Card race. As the calendar and the MLB season becomes shorter and shorter it is becoming more and more clear that the Nationals should move a few veteran pieces before the August 31^st trading deadline, at least in my opinion. The first piece they should move, because again in my opinion they will not and should not trade Bryce Harper, is first baseman and outfielder Daniel Murphy. 

Murphy checks a lot of boxes for the New York Yankees here in 2018 including the fact that Murphy is a free agent after the 2018 campaign, Murphy is left-handed which works well inside Yankee Stadium while it also helps to even out a heavy right-handed batting lineup in the Bronx, Murphy can handle the pressure of New York as he has spent much of his career across town with the New York Mets, the prospect cost would be minor for basically just a month of his services plus a potential postseason trip, he is hitting at an impressive .310/.354/.446 clip with limited playing time and in a smaller sample size of 53 games, and most importantly his salary could be worked into the roster without forcing the team to exceed the luxury tax threshold. Murphy is set to make $17.5 million this season which would roughly equate to $3 million in remaining and pro-rated salary for the remainder of the season. 

Murphy would not solve all of the Yankees problems that the team is facing right now, but he would go a long way in keeping the likes of Shane Robinson on the bench, or in the Minor Leagues, and keeping Greg Bird fresh, since you know… he is fatigued and all. Murphy makes a lot of sense for the Yankees, which usually means we will not be seeing him in pinstripes this fall… but one can hope, right?