SAN DIEGO _ Two years ago, Daniel Murphy had the dubious distinction of being the Mets' lone representative for the All-Star Game in Minneapolis. His primary qualification? Murphy owned a blue and orange uniform. Somebody had to wear one that night at Target Field.
Murphy was a party crasher that season, a low-profile, no-nonsense, bat-centric grinder who backdoored his way into the Midsummer Classic. But life is a little different now, and as Murphy prepared for Tuesday night's All-Star Game at Petco Park, his locker was situated between two new teammates, Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg.
This week, Murphy's worlds have collided in San Diego. Draped in Nationals colors, he worked with Kevin Long, his former Mets hitting coach, and chatted up Terry Collins. During the sixth-inning "Stand Up 2 Cancer" segment, Murphy held up a sign with Sandy Alderson's name, as the GM is battling an undisclosed type of the disease.
Murphy came within 88 votes of starting for the NL at second base, and in a double-whammy for the Mets, two of their top All-Stars, Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes, were knocked out by injuries.
For a few days, everyone had to put aside the fact that Murphy has almost single-handedly torn down the Mets, the team that dismissed him over the winter, in performing like an MVP during the season's first half. Murphy is batting .348, tops in the majors, with 17 homers and 66 RBIs in 87 games. In 2014, for his previous All-Star trip, he had a .294 average, seven homers and 37 RBIs. His .755 OPS was more than 200 points below his current .985.
"I can tell you, without a doubt, I didn't think that this is what it would be like at the half," Murphy said. "If you had asked me in spring training, and somebody said this is what I would do, I would have said no way."
The Mets didn't envision this scenario, either. Alderson made him a $15.8-million qualifying offer he knew Murphy would refuse, believing that the defending NL champs were likely better off redistributing those funds elsewhere. By now, we can safely say that was a miscalculation.
The Murphy Revenge Tour wound up in D.C., where he signed a three-year, $37.5-million deal with the Nats. We got the sense then that he would haunt his former pals in Flushing, and this All-Star resume was written in Mets tears.
Murphy is hitting .423 (22-for-52) against them with seven homers and 21 RBIs in 13 games. That type of performance seems to go beyond casual dislike and straight to man-on-a-mission behavior, even if Murphy won't cop to it. We tried to get Murphy to go there, to just admit a tiny bit of satisfaction in torturing the team that dissed him. But his New York experience trained him well. Murphy's smile stretched wider with each attempt, yet he didn't crack.
"Oh, it's always nice to play well against a division opponent," Murphy said. After a slight pause, he added, "Always."
We'll take that as a yes. For some additional insight, we sought out another All-Star, the Blue Jays' Josh Donaldson, on how being traded by the A's may have helped fuel his motivation in winning the MVP the next season. Murphy was set adrift rather than swapped, but the emotion isn't all that dissimilar.
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't," Donaldson said. "I wanted them to feel like they were missing out. Every time I went out there, I wanted to remind them that I was once an A _ and this is what they could have had."
Perhaps someday Murphy will admit it. And in the meantime, we'll keep trying. If Murphy keeps this up in the second half, he's going to make a compelling MVP case for himself.
"I don't really look at it that way," said Murphy, who singled Tuesday night and made a nice backhand play to end the seventh inning. "I've learned enough from this league that if you're not laser-focused, you're going to get exposed. And I've gotten exposed enough times to see that. It's more about the task at hand."
For Murphy, now it's back to beating the Mets again.
