Daniel Murphy declines Mets' qualifying offer

Daniel Murphy has declined the New York Mets' one-year, $15.8 million qualifying offer. Murphy has spent his entire career with the Mets, dating back to his selection in the 13th round of the 2006 amateur draft. In seven big league seasons, he's hit .288/.331/.424 with a 110 wRC+.

Murphy went from a likely free agent to G.O.A.T to goat during the Mets' run through the 2015 postseason, when he helped lead the team to the World Series by hitting .421/.436/1.026 with 7 home runs between the NLDS and NLCS. But struggled in the Fall Classic, hitting just .150/.320/.150 while committing a costly error in Game 4.

Should Murphy sign elsewhere, Dilson Herrera is a likely candidate to replace Murphy at second base, though Wilmer Flores, who spent much of 2015 at shortstop, committed zero errors in more than 290 innings at second and remains a viable candidate.

With Murphy's decision, the Mets would be awarded a compensatory pick after the first round of next year's amateur draft if Murphy signs with a new team before the draft. The possibility remains that Murphy and the Mets could work out a new contract, though the odds of that seem slim.