PHILADELPHIA — Daniel who?
Considering that Daniel Murphy is leading the National League in hitting for the Mets’ chief division rival and it has created even less buzz than Bartolo Colon’s fastball, tells you Neil Walker must be doing something right.
Murphy is hitting .429 for the Nationals, but the Mets can boast Walker is tied for third in the league with six homers. That is one less than Bryce Harper has generated in his tremendous start.
On Wednesday, it was more Walker — albeit not enough — in a 5-4 loss to the Phillies in 11 innings that denied the Mets a three-game sweep. Walker finished 4-for-5 with four singles on a night the Mets left 12 runners on base.
You only can imagine the kind of pressure that would be building if Walker wasn’t producing. We have seen it so many times over the years from new arrivals to New York, and most of those players weren’t replacing a popular presence who had morphed into an October hero.
“I can’t help who is here before me and what he is doing now,” Walker said. “Obviously, Murph is a great player and I need to do what I can to be successful and help my team in any way I can.”
For now he’s helping the Mets by launching the ball into the seats. That includes three homers batting right-handed, his supposedly weak side of the plate.
That fast start has helped reinforce the idea the Mets caught a break when Ben Zobrist jilted them and took the Cubs’ four-year offer last winter instead of theirs, for essentially the same money.
But within 24 hours Walker had arrived, with expendable Jon Niese dealt to the Pirates. The lefty Niese would have been no better than a fifth starter for the Mets — a spot the veteran Colon and Logan Verrett have shown they can more than handle — making the Walker deal a potential steal for general manager Sandy Alderson.
And yet it’s only natural that Walker’s season will be compared to Murphy’s, even
if the situation is apples and oranges for the Mets.
In Walker they have a player who can become a free-agent after this season, at which time the Mets can decide whether he’s worth a long-term commitment. Team brass had decided Murphy wasn’t worth that long-term deal, and for that reason there was no serious push to sign the second baseman for more than the one-year qualifying offer. Murphy ultimately received three years and $37.5 million from the Nationals.
“I think Neil Walker realizes he’s a good player,” manager Terry Collins said. “Any time you make a trade or any time you sign as a free agent someplace, especially in our market, you’ve got to go play well. We are lucky that he has played well, because he has made a difference in a lot of the games so far.”
Walker is the steadier defensive player and brings more power to the equation, but he won’t reach base as much as Murphy. Among the surprising statistics is the fact Walker’s batting average and on-base percentage are an identical .293. It means a guy named “Walker” still hadn’t taken one.
“I don’t really think about that,” Walker said. “When you think about your at-bats at the end of the day, you think about some of the counts that you get in. For me, hitting where I am in the order, the walks are going to come.”
Walker hit a career-high 23 homers for the Pirates in 2014, but doesn’t want to hear anything about obliterating that number.
“I don’t consider myself a power guy,” he said. “I consider myself a gap-to-gap guy, but I am confident with where my swing is right now.”
Walker is unlikely to finish among the NL leaders in homers, just as Murphy won’t hit .400 this year. Just the fact Walker is holding his own in the comparison game is a nice April gift to the Mets.