Daniel Murphy returned to the New York Mets on Thursday after being on paternity leave.

Murphy received criticism from the New York media for his decision to leave the club.

"I got a couple of text messages about it, so I'm not going to sit here and lie and say I didn't hear about it," Murphy said of the criticism he received.

"But that's the awesome part about being blessed, about being a parent, is you get that choice. My wife and I discussed it, and we felt the best thing for our family was for me to try to stay for an extra day -- that being Wednesday -- due to the fact that she can't travel for two weeks."

Murphy missed two games to be with his wife as she gave birth to the couple's first child, son Noah.