Mets Offseason Primer, Part One: Payroll Commitments

On Friday MLBTR posted that the Mets had about $108 million dollars in commitments based on data from Cots Contracts for the 2011 season. The problem with that number was that it left off a lot of data while at the same time included players bonuses in that figure that have already been paid.

I decided to take a closer look and include players who are arbitration eligible, those who will be renewed, and pending Mets free agents. I also went ahead and gave my best estimate as to how much money each player should receive so that we can have a clearer indication of what the Mets are up against. I also deducted the bonus figures for each player that had it included in the original total. For example Carlos Beltran will count as $18.5 million instead of $21.25 million.

The grand total of the 2011 payroll based on my estimation, stands at approximately $131 million dollars. I assumed the Mets would pick up the Jose Reyes option which was not included on Cots Contracts, only the buyout was.

I also made the assumption that John Maine would be non-tendered, but that Mike Pelfrey, Angel Pagan, Sean Green and R.A. Dickey would all be tendered a contract.

Finally, my estimate assumes that both Hisanori Takahashi and Pedro Feliciano will be re-signed for 2011 and perhaps beyond.

The $130 million dollar number I come up with, is actually higher than the 2010 payroll which was around $125 million dollars. So even before the Mets make any moves, due to raises and the sort, their payroll will already be up a little more than 5% going into the new season.