Good Morning, Everyone. I wanted to put together an offseason planner for your convenience. I also included important offseason dates to remember.
Essentially what follows is a summary I compiled of the team’s 2022 Payroll Commitments, Arbitration Projections, Qualifying Offers, Key Departures and Notes & Observations.
Guaranteed Contracts
Francisco Lindor – $34,100,000
Jacob deGrom – $35,500,000
Robinson Cano – $20,250,000
Carlos Carrasco – $12,000,000
James McCann – $8,150,000
Trevor May – $7,750,000
Taijuan Walker – $7,000,000
Total Guaranteed: $124,750,000
* * * * * * *
All salaries have been adjusted for the luxury cap. Almost $10M of Jacob deGrom’s salary for 2022 is deferred. The Seattle Mariners are paying $3.75M of Robinson Cano’s guaranteed $24M for 2022.
Arbitration Eligible
Edwin Diaz (3) – $10.2M
Pete Alonso (1) – $7.8M
Brandon Nimmo (3) – $6.2M
Seth Lugo (2) – $3.6M
Trevor Williams (3) – $3.75M
Dominic Smith (2) – $3.2M
Miguel Castro (3) – $2.5M
J.D. Davis (2) – $3.0M
Jose Martinez (1) – Released
Jeff McNeil (1) – $3.1M
Robert Gsellman (3) – $1.4M
Joey Lucchesi (1) – $1.0M
Tomas Nido (1) – $1.1M
Drew Smith (1) – $800K
Luis Guillorme (1) – $875K
Jose Peraza (1) – Released
Total Est Arb: $45,500,000
* * * * * * *
The number in parenthesis represents each player’s arbitration year followed by our own projected arbitration awards for the 2022 season.
In 2021 these 16 players earned $29.8 million dollars.
According to our projections we expect that number to climb to roughly $50.25 million.
Of course you can expect multiple non-tenders from this group. My guess is that Lucchesi, Gsellman, Peraza, Martinez, Williams and Castro will all be non-tendered.
The most significant increases will go to Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo.
Free Agents & Qualifying Offers
Michael Conforto **
Noah Syndergaard **
Marcus Stroman
Javier Báez
Kevin Pillar (Declined 2022 option)
Aaron Loup
Jonathan Villar
Jeurys Familia
Brad Hand
Rich Hill
* * * * * * *
As of this writing the Mets have not made any final decisions on qualifying offers.
It’s probably a good bet that the only players to receive a qualifying offer from this group are Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard.
The deadline for extending the $18.4 million qualifying offer is this Sunday at 5 PM EST.
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
Travis Blankenhorn
Khalil Lee
Patrick Mazeika
Tylor Megill
David Peterson
Jake Reed
Sean Reid-Foley
Jordan Yamamoto
Thomas Szapucki
Total Non-Guar $5,134,500
* * * * * * *
The Mets pre-arbitration players have non-guaranteed contracts and are tabulated at the major-league minimum $570,500 for each player.
Opening Day Payroll
Here are the Mets Opening Day payrolls over the last five years:
- 2022 – $175.5 million*
- 2021 – $195 million
- 2020 – $ 80 million
- 2019 – $159 million
- 2018 – $151 million
- 2017 – $154 million
As of this writing Mets payroll currently stands at roughly $175.5 million dollars for 27 roster spots.
With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire on December 1, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have been in talks regarding the competitive balance tax.
Currently on the table is a 25 percent tax on any spending above $180M.
Important Dates
Nov. 7: Deadline for teams to submit qualifying offers to players.
Nov. 9: Manager of the Year Awards will be announced on MLB Network.
Nov. 10: AL and NL Cy Young Awards to be announced on MLB Network.
Nov. 10: MLB free agents who received qualifying offers from their teams must declare whether they accept or reject their offers.
Nov. 11: Most Valuable Player awards for the NL and AL are announced on MLB Network.
Nov. 15: The 2021 Hall of Fame ballot will be released, with voting taking place through December 31.
Nov. 19: Teams must add eligible minor leaguers to their 40-man rosters or risk losing them to the Rule 5 Draft.
Dec. 1: MLB non-tender deadline. Teams must offer their pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible players a contract for 2022 by this date.
Dec. 5-9: MLB’s annual Winter Meetings are scheduled to take place in San Diego. (Pending)
Dec. 9: Rule 5 Draft (Pending)
Jan. 14: Teams must exchange salary arbitration figures with arbitration-eligible players.
Jan. 20: The National Baseball Hall of Fame announces its Class of 20-25.
Feb. 12: Arbitration hearings begin.
Feb. 26: Spring training games begin. Mets will play the Marlins in Jupiter, Florida.
March 31: Opening Day! Mets open the season at home against the Washington Nationals.
MMO Has You Covered
You can count on Metsmerized Online to keep you up to date on all the Mets news, rumors and happenings all offseason long. We’ll be on hand at the Winter Meetings in San Diego if it’s on, and we’ll be passing along any and all team news, rumors, buzz, etc. We will also file a daily summary each night.
As always, we won’t post any rumors on MMO unless it passes the sniff test and comes from a credible source. We’ll be working around the clock both day and night to ensure that you won’t miss a beat. You can also follow all the action on our Twitter feed @Metsmerized and our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Thanks so much for all of your incredible support. Please let us know what we can do to make your experience at Metsmerized Online a better one. And as always, Let’s Go Mets!
