New York second basemen Cano & Murphy thriving ... elsewhere.

Did the Yankees and Mets make fundamental mistakes in not retaining their home grown second basemen Robinson Cano and Daniel Murphy? Cano is the all time Yankee second baseman and Murphy set tournament home run records in 2015.

Each was allowed to become free agents, Cano after the 2013 season, Murphy after 2015. Each is replaced with new players in 2016 and those new players were acquired by trading a pitcher.

Yankees Adam Warren: 3-0, 1.35 ERA, 13 innings for Cubs
December 8, 2015: Traded by the New York Yankees with a player to be named later to the Chicago Cubs for Starlin Castro. The New York Yankees sent Brendan Ryan (December 17, 2015) to the Chicago Cubs to complete the trade.

Mets Jon Niese: 3-1, 5.94 ERA, 33 innings for Pirates
December 9, 2015: Traded by the New York Mets to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Neil Walker.

Both Castro and Walker are hitting well for New York but not as well as Cano and Murphy for Seattle and Washington.

For 2016, Played 50% of games at 2B, (Qualified for league batting title), sorted by greatest Adjusted OPS+

Rk	Player	OPS+	HR	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Jose Altuve	199	9	2016	26	HOU	AL	32	142	123	30	40	14	0	19	16	1	16	3	0	0	4	13	1	.325	.415	.659	1.074	*4/H
2	Robinson Cano	180	12	2016	33	SEA	AL	31	138	128	20	39	6	0	33	9	0	17	1	0	0	3	0	0	.305	.355	.633	.988	*4/D
3	Daniel Murphy	179	4	2016	31	WSN	NL	30	123	114	20	45	12	2	17	8	1	14	1	0	0	0	1	1	.395	.439	.640	1.079	*4
4	Logan Forsythe	162	4	2016	29	TBR	AL	28	121	106	16	33	9	1	12	14	0	26	1	0	0	0	3	2	.311	.397	.528	.925	*4/D
5	Brett Lawrie	138	4	2016	26	CHW	AL	32	130	112	16	31	8	0	12	17	1	39	1	0	0	2	2	2	.277	.377	.455	.832	*4
6	Ben Zobrist	134	5	2016	35	CHC	NL	28	129	101	21	28	5	0	25	23	1	13	1	1	3	3	1	1	.277	.406	.475	.881	*4/9
7	Ian Kinsler	134	6	2016	34	DET	AL	29	134	125	25	38	5	0	17	7	0	20	1	0	1	1	3	1	.304	.343	.488	.831	*4
8	Chase Utley	130	1	2016	37	LAD	NL	27	111	94	15	28	6	2	9	14	0	17	3	0	0	0	1	0	.298	.405	.436	.842	*4/H5
9	Rougned Odor	126	6	2016	22	TEX	AL	32	131	125	22	37	9	0	20	5	0	22	1	0	0	0	4	1	.296	.328	.512	.840	*4/H
10	Dustin Pedroia	126	5	2016	32	BOS	AL	30	142	134	21	41	7	1	16	8	0	22	0	0	0	8	0	0	.306	.345	.485	.830	*4
11	Jean Segura	124	4	2016	26	ARI	NL	30	136	130	16	44	6	2	15	4	0	17	2	0	0	0	4	1	.338	.368	.508	.875	*4/6H
12	Starlin Castro	122	3	2016	26	NYY	AL	29	114	108	8	32	7	1	12	6	0	15	0	0	0	6	2	0	.296	.333	.463	.796	*4
13	Brandon Phillips	119	6	2016	35	CIN	NL	28	112	105	16	30	6	1	16	3	1	15	2	0	2	2	3	3	.286	.313	.533	.846	*4
14	Neil Walker	114	9	2016	30	NYM	NL	30	118	112	14	29	1	0	19	6	2	24	0	0	0	3	1	0	.259	.297	.509	.806	*4/H
15	Joe Panik	104	3	2016	25	SFG	NL	27	117	105	17	27	4	3	12	11	0	14	0	0	1	1	2	0	.257	.325	.438	.763	*4/H
16	Jonathan Schoop	103	5	2016	24	BAL	AL	30	109	105	12	27	6	0	12	4	0	22	0	0	0	3	0	0	.257	.284	.457	.742	*4
17	Josh Harrison	103	1	2016	28	PIT	NL	30	125	116	14	37	6	1	17	5	0	18	1	1	2	2	5	0	.319	.347	.414	.761	*4
18	Jed Lowrie	98	0	2016	32	OAK	AL	31	122	112	10	34	5	0	17	8	0	18	0	0	2	2	0	0	.304	.344	.348	.692	*4/DH6
19	Brian Dozier	94	4	2016	29	MIN	AL	28	124	109	15	24	6	0	14	13	0	20	1	1	0	1	2	0	.220	.309	.385	.694	*4/H
20	DJ LeMahieu	94	2	2016	27	COL	NL	29	118	106	18	32	6	1	10	9	1	15	0	2	1	7	5	2	.302	.353	.434	.787	*4/H
21	Jason Kipnis	92	3	2016	29	CLE	AL	28	123	111	17	29	6	0	13	9	0	36	0	0	3	6	3	0	.261	.309	.396	.705	*4
22	Cesar Hernandez	75	0	2016	26	PHI	NL	29	114	105	8	28	4	2	6	7	0	18	0	2	0	2	2	4	.267	.313	.343	.655	*4
23	Omar Infante	70	0	2016	34	KCR	AL	25	96	89	10	22	7	0	4	5	0	17	0	1	1	0	0	0	.247	.284	.326	.610	*4
24	Dee Gordon	69	0	2016	28	MIA	NL	21	97	94	13	25	3	2	5	3	0	17	0	0	0	1	6	2	.266	.289	.340	.629	*4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/9/2016.

Their batting ranks among 24 second basemen in 2016:
2. Cano (leads American Conference in HR, RBI
3. Murphy (leads National Conference in Hits)
13. Castro (replaced by Cubs with Ben Zobrist, #6 and 9 years older)
14. Walker (9 HR)

Cano: $24 million for each season 2014-2023 (age 40)
Murphy: $8, $12, $17.5 million (age 33)
Castro: $7.9, $9.9, $10.1, $10.9, $11.9, $16 (team option) million (age 30)
Walker: $10.6 million (age 30); free agent after 2016

Mistakes?