Jacob deGrom was upset about his salary for 2016, refusing to sign the $607,000 deal that was offered to him by the Mets. This season though, deGrom is in line for a big bump in pay.
According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the top 22% of players who were called up in 2014 will qualify for an extra year of salary arbitration. With two years and 139 days of service time under his belt, deGrom would fall under this category.
It is projected that deGrom could get $4.5 million dollars in arbitration for the 2017 season. Jacob is under team control until 2020, but the two sides could consider a multi-year deal.
Coming off an injury plagued season in which he saw himself start 24 games while pitching to a 7-8 record with an ERA of 3.04, deGrom has previously expressed interest in signing a deal to buy out his arbitration years.
DeGrom has been excellent so far in his career with the Mets, pitching to an overall record of 30-22 and an ERA of 2.74 to go with a WHIP of 1.10. Signing him to a deal now that would include his arbitration years and some free agency may be very attractive to the front office at this point.
The Mets have yet to approach any of their young starting rotation at this time on a long-term deal. As the years continue to tick down, free agency inches closer for each of them. Getting deGrom on board for the long term would not be a bad start to say the least.
