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Mets first base prospect Ike Davis is having a big spring. His slash line to date is .500/.560/.909 after having an excellent season in the minors last year. We listed him as one of the five Mets prospects that could have an impact on 2010. It’s a great situation for the Mets to have an heir apparent at first base.
The big question is what the Mets will do with Daniel Murphy when Davis supplants him at first base. That’s “when”, not “if” Davis supplants him. There’s no question in my mind that Davis will be ready to square off against major league pitchers at some point this season. That poses a big problem for Murphy.
Regular readers here know that I don’t think Murphy is a full-time solution at first base. After the 2009 disastrous experiment in left field, it doesn’t look like Murphy is going to crack the lineup anywhere else either. Murphy looks to me like he could make a decent career in the major leagues as a pinch hitter/role player. But I don’t think he can hit enough to play every day and he certainly doesn’t appear to be able to play the field other than the infield corners.
At some point this season, the Mets are going to realize that their best first baseman is playing at Triple-A Buffalo, where Davis will likely start the 2010 season. When that realization hits, I expect the Mets to add Davis to the 25-man roster and start playing him every day. There are a lot of factors that go into when that will happen. You can see a good discussion of this point at On The Black where Kerel Cooper describes the potential scenarios that may bring Davis to Citi Field in 2010.
It’s going to happen at some point this season, we just don’t know what Murphy’s fate will be when it does. I expect the Mets to keep Murphy on the roster as the primary lefty off the bench and the 25th man, probably Mike Jacobs, to lose his spot on the roster.
The Mets Report 