Three-time All-Star Daniel Murphy, who announced his retirement in 2021, has launched a comeback bid and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, the team announced this morning. He’ll be reunited with former Mets teammate Ruben Tejada, who signed with the Ducks last month.
“This game is part of my soul, and my passion for playing grew as great as ever when I discovered certain things that I believe will enable me to be productive on the field again,” Murphy said in a statement thanking the organization for the opportunity.
Murphy, who’ll turn 38 this weekend, last saw the big leagues with the Rockies in 2020, when he batted .236/.275/.333 in 132 trips to the plate. That marked the second season of a two-year, $24M deal he’d inked with Colorado, during which he posted a combined .269/.316/.426 batting line that fell shy of his prior standards with the Mets, Nationals and Cubs.
From 2011-18, Murphy was a consistently above-average to elite hitter, batting a combined .303/.346/.462 while striking out in just 11.6% of his plate appearances. His bat-to-ball skills were among the best in the game and were on full display during a career-best 2016 season in Washington that saw him slash .347/.390/.595 (154 wRC+) with career-highs in home runs (25), doubles (47) and triples (5) while fanning at just a 9.1% clip. Murphy finished second in National League MVP voting that season.
Certainly, a return to that level of play can’t be expected at his age and with two full seasons having elapsed since he last took the field. That said, Murphy is a supremely talented natural hitter, and it’s plenty common to see players remain productive at the plate into their late 30s. The odds are generally stacked against any player in this type of comeback bid, but Murphy’s production with the Ducks will be worth monitoring.
Leg injuries, most notably knee surgery in 2018, dogged Murphy throughout the latter stages of his MLB career. It’s conceivable that the time away from the field has led to better health in that regard. If he looks to have captured some semblance of his old form, it’s easy enough to envision a team in need of a left-handed bat at first base giving him a look at some point during the 2023 season. If not, signing with the Ducks will give him one last opportunity to bid farewell to New York fans who cheered him on for seven memorable seasons with the Mets.
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