While watching the Subway Series tilt with my wife Friday night, she pointed out that I almost never mention Luis Castillo here. And indeed, since Opening Day I’ve only mentioned Castillo in passing, and usually only when detailing a specific game situation he was part of or when listing his defensive struggles among the Mets’ various problems.
In the waning days of the preseason, I half-joked that Castillo was my favorite player in baseball, for a variety of reasons. That’s not why I’ve laid off him here, though, even as he has struggled to do that one thing he still might do well — get on base.
Maybe that’s part of the reason I lay off Castillo. Plus, he became such a frequent target of Mets-fan vitriol that I think he may have actually become vaguely underrated at some point in the last couple years. He’s not like Jeff Francoeur or someone; no Mets fan believes Luis Castillo is a great player enduring a rough stretch. And far too many blame Castillo for his contract, which isn’t really his fault. I feel no need to pile on.
Plus, there’s something inspiring about watching Castillo persevere with his limited skill set and nagging injuries. Watch him walk around the dugout or the clubhouse, or even off the field on an out, and he’s hobbling. I’ve never been Luis Castillo so I can’t know how much pain he’s enduring, but there’s no doubt from his halting limp that he aches in all sorts of awful ways. And yet he’s out there every time he can be, slapping at strikes and lunging awkwardly at grounders. It’s damn near Sisysphean.
But Castillo’s apparently hurting now, even more than he usually is. And every game he misses is another game closer to Alex Cora’s vesting option doing just that.
So with Daniel Murphy now optioned to Triple-A, the Mets need to revisit the idea of shifting their former first baseman one spot to the left, and pronto. Murphy probably won’t ever be a good defensive second baseman, for sure. But he took to a new position last year with surprising aplomb, and demonstrated enough range in the infield that it’s reasonable to expect he could be nearly as good as Castillo out there in short order.
He won’t turn the double play like Castillo or position himself as well or do any of the myriad little things the veteran has picked up in his 1642 games as a Major League second baseman. But if Murph can just cover some ground on the right side of the infield, it’s not hard to imagine he’ll be a more valuable player than Castillo if he can produce something reasonable offensively.
That’s another matter entirely, as Murphy didn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence with his bat in 2009. But he’s young yet and likely improving, and, again, it’s not like anyone’s asking him to replace Joe Morgan.
At the very least, trying Murphy at second — if it’s even a little bit successful — enhances his trade value and buys the team time while middle infield prospects like Ruben Tejada and Reese Havens develop. With the Triple-A Bisons overwhelmed with corner players as it is, Murphy should get every opportunity to show he can handle second.
Of course, the Mets picked up second baseman Justin Turner off waivers from the Orioles today and assigned him to Buffalo. So, really, who knows what the plans are for Murph? If the Mets see him as a possible Mark DeRosa-type super sub, though — as Jerry Manuel suggested this offseason — they should get about teaching him how to do that.
Tedquarters 
I think whatever the Mets do with Murphy at AAA it will be designed to put him in a position to succeed so he is attractive as trade bait.
I really think turning the double play is the only real concern, and hopefully playing enough innings there at 2nd would alleviate some of that. I think 2nd base has become overrated as a defensive position in the minds of a lot of fans, teams have realized over the last few years it’s more average defensively than a hard position and have started putting somewhat less athletic better offensive players there.
I believe Murphy was considered a solid 3rd basemen in the minors so there’s not a lot of reason to think it would be an absolute disaster or impossible for him to move to 2nd, they require different skill sets but they’re both considered equally hard. Especially since his defensive short comings in the majors weren’t because of a lack of athleticism but because a lack of experience at the positions.
But yeah if they’re optioning a second basemen to AAA I’m not sure how he’d get enough innings there to be reasonably expected to contribute at 2nd sometime this year.
Players like Kelly Johnson and Skip Schumacher have made the transition to second base and have played capably. If Murphy’s bat can improve just a little from last year, when he had no protection in a heinous lineup, he’d be a better player than Luis, easily.
I sure hope Murph succeeds, hopefully with us. His offensive #’s as a rookie were much stronger than most people seem to realize; didnt he have approx 36 doubles as a first yr player ? i thought he could be a passable ML: firstbaseman. my understanding is that he was very poor at 3b in AA; the reviews on his defense in LF were not very positive – from reading the comments, you would think he curled up into a fetal postion every time a fly ball was hit to the outfield.. Based on the 3b & LF experiences, i dont think its possible for him to be passable at 2b. There is a reason big beefy backup catcher types dont play the middle infield positions or CF. (They tend to be too damn slow) !!! Until the last 10 yrs ago, middle IF’rs tended to be slender little acrobatic type guys… We have had too many failed experiments like Jefferies, Piazza, etc trying to play out of position. Maybe Murph can learn to play LF. Pagan is athletic – anybody want to try him at 2b ?
Murphy isn’t beefy or slow or unathletic though. He had the range to play outfield he just took terrible routes. It had nothing to do with ability it was the lack of experience there. And nothing in his minor league profile says he’ll ever have a possible bat at first base or corner outfielder, his rookie offensive stats was just a small sample size abberation. There’s really no reason to think athletically he can’t handle second.
Murphy had an 8.7 UZR/150 at first base last season, compared to the -14.2 in LF in 2008. That has to translate to someone at least moderately capable of defending at second base.
For comparison’s sake, Kelly Johnson had an 18.4 UZR/150 in LF and -5.3 career at second, while Skip Schumacher is at -7.3/150 career as compared to -8.6 in the outfield. So neither is good defensively, but they’re more than capable compared to Luis Castillo -12 UZR/150 last season. I’d assume that Murphy would be close to a scratch player in terms of range, especially considering that his problems last year were those of overpursuit, rather than in getting to balls.
Can he pitch?
Maybe we can move him to rf and have Frenchy pitch.
Even easier: Ike can pitch, Murphy to 1B, and THE ANIMAL in right.
“it’s not like anyone’s asking him to replace Joe Morgan.” Can we try replacing Joe Morgan in the ESPN booth? No way Murphy can be as bad as Morgan in that position.
Dude – Nice call. I thought the exact same thing. Just having the words “replace” and “Joe Morgan” in the same sentence made me smile.