18
2011
Mike Pelfrey Settles With Mets To Avoid Arbitration
An article by Craig Lerner
As I supposed in my original post, the Mets have indeed settled with Mike Pelfrey and thus avoiding arbitration.
ESPN New York is reporting that arbitration-eligible Mike Pelfrey has settled with the Mets. An organization source said the deal will pay Pelfrey $3.925 million during the upcoming season. He can earn $50,000 extra in performance bonuses.
Pelfrey, who turned 27 last Friday, made $3.3 million in 2009 as part of his original deal after signing as a first-round pick in 2005. But he did not yet have enough service time last offseason to be arbitration-eligible, so his salary dipped to $500,000 this past year.
Angel Pagan and R.A. Dickey also are also due to exchange salary figures today for a February hearing if there’s no settlement.
Updated on 1/17 12:00 PM
On Tuesday, Mike Pelfrey, Angel Pagan and R.A. Dickey will each exchange arbitration figures with the team for a 2011 contract.
Alderson said last week, that sometimes exchanging figures can pave the way for a settlement to be reached, and he hoped that would be the case with one or more players.
As I said in my original post, I believe the Mets will probably settle on a deal with Mike Pelfrey to avoid arbitration.
Original Post 1/12 2:00 PM
Ask any Mets fan to name three players who they were pleasantly surprised with in 2010, and no doubt you will hear the names of Mike Pelfrey who rebounded from a terrible season, Angel Pagan who finally played a full season and exceeded all expectations, and of course R.A. Dickey who was by far the biggest and best surprise of them all.
Not coincidentally, all three of them are spiraling toward an arbitration hearing that each of them would like to avoid.
Arbitration hearings can get very nasty and in most cases can damage the sensitive relationships between a player and their team. The reason for that is because the team’s representatives appear before an arbitrator and try to make their case for not giving the players the raise they seek. Rather than discussing the high points of the players prior season, they show up with a detailed case outlining all of the adverse information they can find against their players, painting them in the poorest light possible so that the team can win their case against the player. It’s a bad scene for the players who have to sit and watch their teams shred them to pieces.
In an interview with Adam Rubin, general manager Sandy Alderson indicated that it could be possible that an agreement could be reached with one of the players, but didn’t say who. He also said he would have a better indication about reaching an agreement with one or all of them after arbitration figures are exchanged next week.
“I think it does promote settlement, and sometimes the expectations of parties aren’t clear until the numbers are submitted.”
If a settlement cannot be reached, arbitration hearings will begin on February 1st.
Last season, Dickey earned a base salary of just $600 thousand dollars. One look at his performance and you could easily see him doubling or tripling that in arbitration.
Angel Pagan earned $1.45 million dollars in 2010 and he could approach $3 million or more in arbitration and he would still be worth every penny of it.
Pelfrey had a breakthrough season and much will be expected of him in 2011 as he takes over as the ace while Santana recovers. With Scott Boras running the show, the sky’s the limit and there’s no telling how much he’ll get in arbitration. I’ll go out on a limb and say that of the three, this one might be the one the Mets will try to avoid arbitration with.
About the Author: Craig Lerner
I'm a data analyst and researcher for a leading news agency who loves life and is hooked on the Mets. I love following the Amateur Draft and have a particular fondness for the Mets Minor Leagues who I follow each day. Give me a cold beer, a summer day, and a Mets game, and I'm good to go.
68 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 22 | .476 | 3.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 23 | .410 | 6.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
Recent Comments
- Hawk: on What Do We Have In Lucas Duda And Is He The Solution At Left Field?: Lucas Duda is not a full time...
- Hawk: on D’Arnaud To Remain In Boot Camp For Two More Weeks: ^^THIS^^ Slow to heal.
- Tlagee: on Matt Harvey Does It All In Mets 3-2 Win Over Cubs: Ok, you think 'spins .230 avg and...
- B-Met Fan: on Mets Minors Report 5/18: Puello On A Hot Streak, Wheeler Hits DL, Mejia Makes Rehab Start: Puello is locked in right now at...
- Metro12: on Injury Update: Wheeler To Rejoin Las Vegas Rotation Next Wednesday: Nevermind. I looked it up and...
MMO Mets Chat
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5354 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1270 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
1.38 WHIP is a breakout year?
Yuck.
You should expect Pelfrey’s whip to be higher as his success comes from pitching to contact rather than blowing batters away. Hence the high contact rate versus the low strikeout rate. If you look at all of Pelfrey’s advanced metrics you will see that he is certainly a solid top of the rotation starter.
Pelfrey is certainly not a top of the rotation starter for a good team, no matter which metric you look at.
I would disagree in fact I’d say Pelfrey was that guy for a good part of the early 2010 season. Something that was finally great to see.
You can say that a pitcher is a top of the rotation pitcher for a lot of pitcher just from looking at a specific month or two of their career. Small sample size can make any pitcher look good. For a groundball pitcher he doesn’t really get that many GBs considering his career 49% GB rate. His career 1.56 K/BB ratio is at best pedestrian. The only thing he does well is limit HRs.
OK well if your saying his past record reflects he is not a top of the rotation pitcher I agree.
I am saying thet Pelfrey has shown the ability to be a top of the rotation pitcher if he ever can put it together. Something he came close to doing in 2010.
Big difference yes but I believe he can based on what I have seen in small sizes as opposed to what he has done record wise.
You can say I am looking with my eyes rather than lookin at the stats. While others may do the opposite to suggest the same thing as well.
Advanced metrics dictate that Pelfrey is top of the rotation starter? That’s all I need to know. Very advanced, sure.
We have to stop being afraid of arbitration. The players understand that they go high and their agents try to justify it. The team goes low and they try to justify it.
Players and agents are always talking about how it’s a business, well this is a part of that business.
The Dodgers have an asst. GM, Kim Ng, who handles their arb cases and is a perfect 39 for 39 including a win over Gagne in HIS perfect season. 60 for 60 or something like that.
The fact is if your afraid to defend yourself in arbitration it’s only going to lead to more arbitration requests with higher figures because of the wuss out factor.
If you strongly defend yourself in arbitration, not only do you make agents more willing to talk in reasonable terms, your also going up against lower numbers and fewer cases.
Think an agent wants to go up against Kim Ng? I didn’t think so.
I’d have to add Ike Davis as one of the top 3 pleasant surprises. Why forget him? He is potentially our best left handed hitting rookie since Daryl Strawberry.
I didnt forget Ike, I felt about 15-20 homers and 70-80 RBIs was to be expected from the first round pick based on his 2009 breakthrough in the minors, the AFL and the world cup. He met my expectations, whereas Dickey, Pagan and Pelfrey exceeded expectations.
These three are also up for arbitration so it makes sense to single them out (or more accurately triple them out…ok I’m done)
Lots of guys have great seasons in the minors and flunk in the majors. Because he did well in the minors you expected him to repeat those numbers in his rookie season so therefore that’s why he wasn’t a surprise? That’s like saying a minor leaguer who has a great minor league season in AAA or AA comes up and has a great rookie year but isn’t eligible for rookie of the year because he was expected to have those types of numbers because he did it in the minors.
a case of numbers drunkeness.
OK for the record you completely lost me there.
I really dont understand where you are going with this. If you felt that Ike Davis surprised you than your expectations for him must have been very low. As for me, Ike was a star for Arizona State and some experts thought he would be selected in the Top 10 overall in the draft. The Mets got lucky to find him with the 18th pick. He has done nothing but make scouts drool up until he got called up to replace Mike Jacobs. As for Rookie voting, I think anything the BBWAA have their fingers in is flawed and I dont put much stock into who they select for their awards. Most of the time they get it wrong anyway.
craig,
So a guy like Pelfrey, who was expected to help the team prior to the the 2010 season is one of the top 3 surprises but yet a rookie who did well in COLLEGE…COLLEGE and then did well in the minors, is not a pleasant surprise when he comes up to the show, produces, and was a possible candidate for rookie of the year? Yeah, okay
I have to agree with you on that Craig and that is that watching Ike through the farm and winterball I havent felt so confident on a Met minor leaguer as I did with Ike since When Wright was called up.
I was discussing these three on a podcast last night, and Angel Pagan to me is the odd man out with the arbitration hearings. Sure, I don’t doubt the man will be paid. But I think that Alderson might have shot himself in the foot by not at the very least suggesting a trade for Pagan. I believe he’s peaked, for lack of a better term.
T Agee and I have had this discussion and T Agee feels the contrary but I fear he may have peaked as well. I hope I am wrong though.
we have discussed this before, but I am on the side of trading Pagan if you can get a too good to pass up deal for him.
I am there myself agreed.
It’s a contentious issue in my household. My husband and I will probably get divorced over Angel Pagan! (and it’s not because I left *him* for Pagan, LOL)
the only way I could get divorced over Angel pagan is if one of us slept with him. Pretty sure my wife doesn’t know who he is (but might remember the name from being the guy that threw my daughter a ball 2 years ago during BP).
Speakin of marital status I saw where Hazel Mae got married. Congrats to the lucky bast#$d that gets to go home to her at the end of a long day.
It’s actually a good term and one that isn’t far fetched at all. Given that he’ll be 30 next season it’s safe to assume he will plateau at the current level of production before beginning his decline. Trading him while his value is high might not have been a bad idea. The good thing is that he should easily repeat last season’s production and as he enters his final year of arbitration, he could very well be a huge bargaining chip for us next offseason, especially if Nieuwenhuis is ready for prime time.
Coop, He’s in great shape, plays hard, is an outstanding CFer, steals basses, turns singles into doubles, goes 1st to 3rd and 2nd to home, has a very good arm and I believe he has at least 2 excellent seasons in him. At least. He’s ours through 2012 and we have no one else that can play CF for sure in 2012 and maybe not this year.
Angel Pagan is exactly the kind of player we should be taking a chance on. Hold me to it, I believe he’s good for his 2010 numbers in both 2011 and 2012 if not longer.
For all our sakes – I hope that you are correct and Mr NJ and I are wrong. LOL. I still think we could have cashed in our chips.
PS Please let the record reflect that T-Agee and I have finally somewhat disagreed on something!!
So it is written so shall it be. LoL
Bound to happen Coop. I hope we do whichever turns out the best, regardless.
t agee, I don’t necessarily agree with you here. Cap’n Kirk has done well in A and AA. He was even promoted to AAA at the end of last year. If Pagan does not have a good year this year, Nieuwenhuis should certainly be big league ready after a full year at AAA and a sure September call-up. And hey! We still have F-Mart! hahaha
Reyes, If people right now are divided about his ability to play CF that tells me, even if he does, it’s not going to be a good CF. An average CF with a typical CFer bat is not something that gets me excited.
Pagan can get us to Puello and Kirk can back him up. That’s my feeling right now but I’m open to kirk having a more than CF prospect type bat in AAA this year.
Considering these three arb cases…
If Dickey is projected to triple 600K and end up with what, 1.8? I’d give him 2 Years/4 million. Honestly, I don’t think that’s a killer financial commitment for this team even if he does badly. It’s enough to swallow if they have to cut him.
Pelfrey… he’ll probably make 5-6 million this year. Which I think is fine for the way he pitches. I expect him to prove.
I do not trust Angel Pagan. I think he has peaked. He’s a good player but I don’t think he can play everyday. But 3 million would be acceptable.
Only 2 years for Dickey? I would extend him to at least 4! He is only 36. We aren’t talking about a guy who throws a 98 mph heater. We don’t have to worry about falling velocity. He throws a knuckleball. Tim Wakefield is 44 and he still has a couple more years. Dickey is a huge clubhouse influence and a very smart guy. Every team could use a thinker like him. Lock him up. Give Pelf an extension to avoid arbitration cuz we all know that Boras will milk us for all he can get. Pagan will most likely be irrelevant after 2012.
Pelf had a top notch first half, but came back down to Earth in the second. Of course, this is all coming after hearing about how great a pitcher he is going to be for a few years now, so I didn’t really bug out over him. I was more like “about damn time”.
Niese, on the other hand, did way better than I expected. He was better than 2:1 in K vs BB. He had terrible luck with the .335 BABIP, way higher than league average. He did burn out at the end, but that is because of youth and inexperience. Not too bad for a 7th round pick that was just suppsoed to be filling a spot.
Agreed. I’m a Niese supporter.
I love Jon Niese. I see him as a bigger surprise than Pelf. I also thought it was about damn time he became the pitcher who we always hoped he would become. My father always told me how he saw Pelfrey as a future #1 starter… he has been saying that since we drafted the kid! Before last year I was most definitely NOT a fan of ‘Big Pelf’. Last year changed my mind, but im still unsure if he is a #1 starter. I see Dickey as a smarter choice for the first slot in the rotation.
I would also like to give the credit for their success to both the departure of Peterson (thanks to him we traded away Kazmir, Bell, Owens, Lindstrom) and the arrival of Dan Warthen (a coach who actually has MLB experience unlike the mechanics minded Peterson). Peterson hated power pitchers, curveballs, and awkward mechanics. Warthen is the opposite. Niese is a curveball pitcher, Pelf throws hard. Neither one did well under Rick.
pelf had some success under Peterson, and Neise never pitched for him.
Speaking of Pagan. It seems like DiComo had the question of trading him in his inbox questions.
“I’ve heard a few people suggest that the Mets trade Angel Pagan this offseason. While I realize that he was one of their best players last year and is still fairly young, the Mets likely won’t even be playing significant games in July, and it seems the general consensus is that Pagan had a career year that he’s not likely to replicate. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Lucas Duda and Fernando Martinez could all compete for the right-field job. Does that seem to make sense?
– Tim G., Wharton, N.J.
There is certainly merit to the notion of trading Pagan. He may not duplicate his 2010 output, as you said, and he is about to become significantly more expensive through arbitration.
But there is danger in dealing him, as well. The Mets — hope as they might — don’t know for sure how well Carlos Beltran’s knees will hold up over a full season. To trade Pagan would be to dispose of their insurance at an important position; Nieuwenhuis, Duda and Martinez may all have offensive talent, but none is a proven hitter at the big league level. More importantly, only Nieuwenhuis is a natural center fielder. If the Mets can convince themselves that he’s their center fielder of the future, then Pagan may become more expendable. In the meantime, he remains a valuable source of insurance at the position.”
newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110112&content_id=16425408&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym
After reading the rest of DiComo’s article I get the feeling we are on the same page on many of the Mets issues.
I don’t think Captain Kirk will be ready until he sees at least 3/4 of a year. Duda has the defensive skill of the laptop I’m typing on, and F-Mart…. yeah, I think we all agree he’s another Alex Escobar.
Counting on only one guy for every position is how we wound up where we are. Jacobs because we traded Carp, GMJ because Beltran had surgery 3 months before. CF is way too important to count on just one guy. We know Beltran is gone after this year and way more people than not believe Neuwenhaus will not be a credible CFer and he has offensive issues as well.
To get rid of a guy who has proven he can play CF and does almost everything well offensively (somethings great) would be a really bad move in my opinion.
Always looking at the best case scenario and never the most realistic or even ALL the possibilities is almost guaranteed to cost us down the road.
Considering how many past their shelf life players we have given way too many dollars to and way too many years, Pagan is exactly the kind of guy we should be taking a chance on at smaller money and less years.
Even if he were to be beaten out someday by someone here in our system (Puello?) it wouldn’t be for 3 years or so and if it was Neuwenhaus unlikely as that is, he’d be making minimum and Pagan would still be a very valuable 4th OFer. Two years at 5 per plus a club option for 7 w/1 M buyout gets Angel some guaranteed money and takes care of CF for us for 2011 2012 and perhaps 2013.
Boras will ask for the moon for Pelfrey and become a free agent when it’s his turn.
Assuming he has a good year, hopefully. If he falls apart it’s not happening.
For some reason Innings Pitched was listed (again) and At Bats so I’ll list here for the rest of us so we can have something to gauge the numbers against:
RA Dickey – 174 IP
Mike Pelfrey – 204 IP
Angel Pagain – 579 AB, 44 walks (for the OBP crowd)
There. Now we have something to gauge those numbers against.
Correction – first sentence should read “For some reason Innings Pitched was NOT listed (again)
Interesting,
Also just discovered 174 innings was the most Dickey ever pitched in one season and he showed no fatigue whatsoever. Good job, could probably pitch even more innings this year if he’s the real deal.
I agree. I believe that one of the great things about knuckleballers is that so many of them seem to pitch well into their 40′s and remain effective, and the other is that they can pitch deep into games without fatigue and can even pitch on three days rest without much of a problem. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I sem to recall a quote from R.A. Dickey when he first came up that he would be happy to start every fifth day and pitch out of the bullpen in between. You have to admire that kind of tenacity and passion to play.
he actually pitched a lot more than that (220 or so IIRC) since he started for a while in AAA before he came up. Need to add those in, since they were actually game innings.
If Dickey is real deal we should be able to get 450-500 innings out of Dickey and Pelfrey, and Jon Niese should be able to break the 200 inning mark as well. He pitched 173 last year.
I agree I think that is a realistic goal.
It’s not realistic if they don’t pitch well and can’t get out of the 5th. Forget about goals. If they pitch well and produce, their counting totals wil follow.
pitching well I believe qualifies as being the “real deal”.
500 won’t happen, but realistically Pelf and dickey could do 450. and it would be of tremendous value to the team if they did!
Obviously I said that with hoping they pitch well in mind.
If they don’t pitch well never mind the innings-the season will be lost.
Isn’t it obvious that if they can’t get out of a 5th or pitch well it won’t happen?
I mean really?
It’s realistic in the sense that if the pitch reasonably well they can reach it.
Are you trying to be argumentative?
No, the point is innings shouldn’t be their goal. Their goal should be the things they can control. Don’t walk too many, miss some bats, strand some runners, keep hitters off balance, things like that. Innings totals will accumulate on their own if they can go out and make those things happen.
well that all comes under the premise of pitching well. Everybody knows that and people know what I’m talking about.
It’s you that seems to have a problem deciphering the english language. Do you have comprehension problems? You think like your philosophy – going around in circles only to wind up back where you started.
Heh. Good one.
Xtreem you say the idea about the innings is at 1st “unrealistic” now you say that it wasn’t about it being realistic or not but rather that innings shouldnt be the focus.
I am sorry but I think your not making much sense on this simple comment from Bay and you know me and Bay dont see eye to eye on much but in this case i think your not making much sense.
Actually Dickey pitched 234 innings if you include his 60 in AAA over 8 starts.
I do not see trading Pagan as an option. With the Beltran situation be tenious at best, Pagan’s value is stronger. Pelfrey had a good year and I am not against an extension or arbitration either would be fine. Dickey, well I say give the guy some cash and treat him with a little respect. Two year deal would show faith and respect for a guy who would probably respond favorably. I can see Dickey being a guy who, if he maintains, retires a Met. He just puts me in mind of a loyal kinda guy. I have a Question I don’t remember what the rules are on resigning a player at a lower amount. If Beltran does well and the Mets wanted to resign him then how much lower than his previous contract can they go? I remember this being an issue with Piazza and sdomething says 20% but can’t they resign before spring for whatever?
Pagan is going nowhere. We don’t even know yet if Beltran will have to wear that brace. That could change everything.
Not to mention Reyes’ health always being a concern. It would be nice to have the option of batting Pagan 1st.
Nathan, 20% is only for arbitration cases. Since Beltran won’t be offered arbitration and will be a free agent, teams could sign him for whatever he’d accept.
I know that other teams can sign him to whatever but what if the Mets want to resign him to play right?
Free agents not offered arbitration cannot be resigned until May 1st. Which of course means they can’t negotiate, since he’ll be on someone’s opening day roster.
Well I’m just glad that we didn’t over pay for Pelf. We need more money to lock up Reyes and Dickey. I don’t think the Mets should talk extending Jose until the All-Star break. That should give the team time to see if Reyes has regained his role as the energetic spark plug of the offense. We all know that a healthy Reyes means playoff hunt. Don’t be surprised if by the end of the season people are talking MVP votes like in 2006. This is by no means a bad team. It is a good team which needs to get its act together.
I Believe!
$4M for Pelfrey was a pretty good deal imo I agree.
I wonder what Dickey winds up getting. More or Less than Big Pelf?