Adam Rubin of ESPN New York posted an info-graphic from Baseball Tonight that showed a breakdown on this season’s Mets payroll commitments.
The $22.3 million includes the $18,125,000 owed to Jason Bay and the $3M for his 2014 buyout.
Basically, we have less than half of our total payroll on the field, much like we saw during the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Unfortunately, the Mets are no stranger to this phenomenon.
It doesn’t really hit you until you see it neatly laid out like this.
Making things worse are the poor performances from Ike Davis, Ruben Tejada, Collin Cowgill, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, Shaun Marcum, Scott Atchison, etc.
At the end of this season, David Wright‘s salary jumps from $11 million to $20 million for 2014. Niese will see his salary jump to $5.5 million. Several players will be due raises in arbitration including first-timers Lucas Duda, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Dillon Gee and Jeremy Hefner. Also due for arbitration raises are Daniel Murphy and Bobby Parnell who both will get huge bumps in pay if they continue to perform as they have been.
Since being hired in October of 2010, this upcoming offseason was looked at as the one when Sandy Alderson would be able to spend and add the missing pieces to his team. That was when he’d be rid of any remaining obligations from the Minaya era. He’ll go into the Winter with about $25 million in raises due to the players I listed. And that’s before he does any additional spending.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Sandy navigates through the next hot stove season. I don’t expect to see the kind of spending many think is going to happen, but that’s just my own opinion.
