With Ruben Tejada, Ike Davis and Eric Young Jr all in tow for next season after settling with the Mets and avoiding arbitration, here is the most up to date payroll projection:
2014 Contracts:
David Wright $20M
Curtis Granderson $13M
Bartolo Colon $9M
Chris Young $7.25M
Jonathon Niese $5M
Ruben Tejada $1.1M
Ike Davis $3.5M
Eric Young Jr. $1.85M
Subtotal: $60.7M
MLBTR Arbitration Estimates:
Daniel Murphy $5.1M
Bobby Parnell $3.725M
Dillon Gee $3.55M
Lucas Duda $1.8M
Subtotal: $14.2M
According to ESPN New York:
To round out the roster, you need to add 13 players, at least at the $500,000 major league minimum, for an additional $6.5 million.
Additionally, since you are paying more than 25 players at any given time since some land on the disabled list, you need to factor that in as well. A team official estimated that cost at $4 million to $4.5 million a season. So we’ll take the midpoint: $4.25 million.
Subtotal: $10.75M
That gives us a grand total of $85.65 million in projected payroll…
Will payroll exceed last year’s $93.2 million Opening Day figure? That would mean adding another $7-8 million dollars in a player or two. It could happen, but given what Sandy Alderson said earlier this week, I doubt it.
According to Sandy the Mets want another back end starter, but only on a minor league deal. He also said he’d like to add a veteran reliever on a major league deal, but we’re talking $1-2 million here, tops…
The word is that they expect to go into the season with Ruben Tejada at shortstop. It’s looking less and less like some ploy to get Scott Boras to hand them over Stephen Drew on a one year, $9 million contract. It’s a nice theory, but nobody expects that to happen.
So… There’s a good chance that the Mets go into the 2014 season with a third straight reduction in payroll… Wait, what… Someone get Fred on the line for me…
