John Ricco: Daniel Murphy’s Mets Career is Over

If there was any doubt that Daniel Murphy will not be wearing the blue and orange next season, assistant GM John Ricco put the final nail in Murphy’s Mets coffin Wednesday night.

After acquiring second baseman Neil Walker earlier in the day, Ricco said of Murphy, “He’s meant a ton. Both Daniel and Jon Niese will be moved in this deal, lifelong Mets. We’ve had them since the draft. With Daniel specifically, he’s kind of been through the ups and downs over the last few years, and it’s great to see him be a part of that run to the World Series because of all the hard work. He was a real good Met, and we’re definitely going to miss him. But nature of the game, we have to move on and look for ways to keep improving the team and fortunately this was the way it worked.”

As of Tuesday, Ricco said the Mets were still in contact with Murphy and his people. Now it seems like the only contact in the future will be to ask for Murphy’s Mets ID card back.

Incidentally, John Ricco has been a breath of fresh air at these Winter Meetings. He is very candid, much more open than Sandy Alderson. Alderson would never have made that comment about Murphy. He would have danced around it, using legalese, not definitively saying Murphy was a goner. Ricco is a lot like Brian Cashman in that way; not shy to mention players by name, to tell the fans what is going on with the team.

In any case, with Daniel Murphy and Niese now gone, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada, who both debuted in 2010, are the longest tenured Mets behind David Wright.