Daniel Murphy needs to establish himself as the Mets' best option at first base with Carlos Delgado out, or the Mets won't have any place to start him regularly. On the day he gave Murphy his first major-league start at first, manager Jerry Manuel expressed regret about the Mets' decision to name Murphy their starting left fielder early in spring training. Murphy committed his third error of the year in left during Tuesday's loss to the Dodgers. "I thought he played left field good enough last year and hit well enough to be saying, 'Hey, this guy's my left fielder,'" Manuel said. "In the winter I didn't think there was any question about it. But the struggles he's had during the season, you have to think maybe we made the wrong decision." Mets general manager Omar Minaya has said Murphy could be the team's first baseman of the future.