At least for
the first month of the 2016 season, it looked like the New York Mets made out
just fine in swapping out Daniel Murphy for Neil Walker at second base. That is because Walker matched Murphy with a
monster April as he slammed 9 home runs, collected 19 RBI, and hit .307 which
were career-best rates on a per game basis.
It was obvious Walker would cool however and from May onward, he went
through some extreme peaks and valleys with his hitting. For example Walker was downright putrid in
June with a .214 average but then was absolutely locked in during August as he
hit a ridiculous .389. Unfortunately the
August hot stretch was not allowed to go into September as Walker was forced to
undergo season-ending back surgery. The
real shame was that Walker was not able to add to his career-high tying 23 home
runs and his .282 batting average was his highest since 2010 which shows how
effective a season the veteran was having.
Outside of the home runs, pretty much everything else was right in line
with Walker’s hitting norms but back surgery is a huge red flag moving forward
as we can go on forever giving you examples of guys who were never the same off
such a procedure. While still young at
the age of 30, Walker is now a big injury risk given his back condition. His draft price is always affordable despite
the yearly solid numbers but even at that cheap rate, Walker is someone who
looks like he peaked in 2016 prior to his back going out.
2017
PROJECTION: .273 19 HR 71 RBI 67 R 2
SB
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