Mike Vorkunov of The Star-Ledger took a look at the Mets and how they stack up from a financial perspective. By taking Fangraphs dollar statistics (relative to the number of games played this season) he calculated what each player’s performance was valued at and compared it to their actual salary for the season. Some of the numbers are very surprising.
Vorkunov concludes that Juan Lagares is the Mets most underpaid player. His open market value, given his .281 average and Gold Glove caliber defensive skills in center, is worth $16.4 million. Because Lagares has yet to enter his arbitration years he makes just $500,000. That means the Mets are getting almost a full $16 million in value out of their young center fielder.
Daniel Murphy, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom and Lucas Duda are all considered to be underpaid. Ironically, none of them have reached free agency.
The most surprising finding was that Curtis Granderson and Bartolo Colon are very close to even money. Granderson makes $13 million this season and his estimated value is $11.48 million thus far. Given Granderson’s slow start, those numbers could be much closer by the seasons end. Colon is actually underpaid. The veteran right-hander’s contract seems to be right on the money at $9 million this season. His value; $13.8 million.
It should come as no surprise that David Wright is the worst value on the team. The Captain is hitting just .276 with a dismal 8 home runs in 2014. Given his $20 million price tag and $11.3 million value, he represents the teams worst contract right now. Keep in mind that this analysis was done after Chris Young‘s release.
The Mets are all about the numbers and there’s no better way to see how players stack up than by comparing their numbers and their salaries. The most interesting thing to keep an eye on is how these numbers change throughout their careers. Will Lagares ever actually sign a contract that pays him $15+ million? Could Murphy actually get more than his value on the open market?
