After his first game against the Mets, Daniel Murphy acknowledged the reason he’s a former Met is the presence of Dilson Herrera as the second baseman of the future. The real question is why did the Nationals want Murphy?

They were losing their shortstop Ian Desmond to free agency. They were set at second with Danny Espinosa. They had other second base options with Anthony Rendon and Yunel Escobar in the event the team wanted to shift Espinosa to shortstop this year to allow Trea Turner additional time to develop into the role. Looking over their roster and organization, Murphy didn’t specifically address what they needed. Dusty Baker disagrees with that assertion:

As long as [the Mets] don’t change too much of their personnel, he could be a tremendous asset to us. I mean, we took one of their spiritual leaders, one of their team leaders. And we didn’t take him; they gave him to us. 

The Nationals see Murphy as a big part of the reason why they can beat the Mets. The Nationals organization had to face Murphy 19 times a year for a little more than six years. Even without an obvious fit, the Nationals signed Murphy. 

With Murphy in the fold, the Nationals like their chances. As Nationals GM Mike Rizzo stated:

We’re trying to knock them off. They knocked us off the mountain. We were the champs two of the last four years, they’re the champs right now. We feel we match up with them very well. Since 2012, I think we are [49-26] against them, so we know we’ve done well against them. I like where we are at. When healthy we can compete against anybody. We feel good about ourselves. 

The Mets are still the prohibitive favorites to win the NL East. They have perhaps the best pitching staff the Mets have ever had . . . and that’s saying something. They look to have a better offensive team. They now have the experience after last year’s pennant. 

However, the division is far from a lock. The Nationals still have the reigning NL MVP and a very good rotation. They also have Murphy, and we have all seen what he can do in big games. There’s going to be 19 of them during the regular season. 

The Nationals got him for not only these games but all the others in between to help them win the NL East.