NL East Notes: Nats, Murphy, Marlins, Fernandez

Greg Golson was the 21st overall pick in 2004 by the Phillies and appeared to be on his way to a promising career as he graded out as one of the organization’s Top 10 Prospects in four separate seasons.   However, thanks in part to injuries, the outfielder never fulfilled his potential and only had a cup of coffee in the major leagues.  Now, in an effort to get back on track, Golson is playing winter ball in Mexico, as he writes in an interesting read for Baseball America.

Here’s more out of the NL East:

• The Nationals front office was apparently split on whether to sign Daniel Murphy, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets.  However, there are two clear pros to adding the second baseman.  One is that the Nationals have effectively taken away a rival team’s best contact hitter.  The other is that Murphy fills a need by hitting left-handed.  On Thursday, the Nationals and Murphy reached agreement on a three-year deal worth $37.5MM.
• There has been talk of an attitude problem when it comes to Marlins star Jose Fernandez, retired pitcher Dan Haren disagrees with that notion, as Scott Miller of Bleacher Report writes.  “No way,” Haren said. “No way. A lot of those things in [Slater’s] article were actually right. But at least from a pitcher’s standpoint, there’s no way anybody was on the bench rooting for Jose to get hit.”   Marlins starter Tom Koehler echoed Haren and backed Fernandez.  Still, multiple sources close to the Marlins indicated to Miller that Fernandez has grown more and more blunt with management, and some are miffed by the way he sometimes speaks to his superiors.
• Borrowing a page from the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, the Braves are placing a heavy emphasis on building from within, Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.  Prospects are never a sure thing, but Atlanta has more leeway to be wrong about their youngsters because they now have so many of them.  Pitcher Touki Toussaint, only 19 years old, is considered to be their strongest prospect and we could potentially see him make his big league debut in 2016.