By Joe D.
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 our 2020 Payroll Commitments, our own exclusive Arbitration Projections and Key Departures.
Guaranteed Contracts
Yoenis Cespedes – $29,500,000
Jacob deGrom – $25,500,000
Robinson Cano – $24,000,000
Jeurys Familia – $11,667,000
Jed Lowrie – $11,500,000
Wilson Ramos – $9,250,000
Justin Wilson – $5,000,000
Brad Brach – $1,350,000
Notes:
1. Seattle pays $3.75 million of Robinson Cano salary.
2. Mets pay $2.0 million of Jason Vargas salary.
3. Mets pay David Wright $12.0 million in final year of contract.
The Mets have $117.8 million tied up on these eight players. When you account for the money still owed on the contracts of Jason Vargas and David Wright, and credit the Mets for the money Seattle is responsible for on Robinson Cano, the net payroll on guaranteed contracts comes to $128.0 million.
Total Guaranteed: $128.0 million
2020 Team Options
Juan Lagares – $9,000,000 with $500,000 buyout
The Mets are not expected to exercise their team option on outfielder Juan Lagares. Although they could bring him back on a lesser deal.
Total Buyouts: $500K
Arbitration Eligible
Marcus Stroman (A4) – $7,400,000 / $9.125,000
Noah Syndergaard (A3) – $6,000,000 / $10,750,000
Joe Panik (A3) – $3,850,000 / Non-Tendered
Michael Conforto (A2) – $4 025,000 / $8.125.000
Steven Matz (A2) – $2,625,000 / $5,000,000
Edwin Diaz (A1) – $607,425 / $1,800,000
Seth Lugo (A1) – $591,875 / $1,300,000
Brandon Nimmo (A1) – $598,285 / $1,250,000
Robert Gsellman (A1) – $582,500 / $975,000
Paul Sewald (A1) – $560,000 / $725,000
The number in parenthesis represents each player’s arbitration year, followed by their 2019 salary and our own projected arbitration awards for the 2020 season.
Projections are exclusive to MetsmerizedOnline.com. In most cases the players will settle with the team before their arbitration hearing.
In 2019 these 10 players earned $26.8 million dollars. According to our projections we expect that number to climb to $39.3 million for nine players. We project that Joe Panik will be non-tendered.
The most significant increases will go to Noah Syndergaard who will get a $4.75 million raise, Michael Conforto will see his salary increase by $4.1 million, and Marcus Stroman who gets a $1.7 million bump.
Total Est. Arbitration: $39.3 million
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
The Mets pre-arbitration players have non-guaranteed contracts and are tabulated at the major-league minimum $560,000 for each player.
Total Non-Guaranteed: $8.4 million
Total Current Payroll: $176.2 million
This includes total guaranteed contracts, projected arbitration, non-guaranteed players, and adjustments for player options.
Last year, the Mets opening day payroll was roughly $158.6 million and by season’s end it was $164.5 million. The competitive balance tax threshold is $208 million for the 2020 season.
Key Departures
Photo: Mets.com
Important Dates
October 20, 2019: The World Series begins and will conclude no later than October 28 if it goes seven games.
Day after World Series: All players with at least six years of service time who are not under contract for the 2020 season will become free agents. For the Mets that includes Zack Wheeler and Todd Frazier.
November 3-14, 2019: The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) will announce the finalists and then the winners of the Rookies and Managers of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player Awards. Pete Alonso and Jacob deGrom are expected to be big winners for the Mets.
November 11-14, 2019: General managers meetings take place in Scottsdale, Ariz.
November 19-21, 2019: Owners’ meetings in Arlington, Tex. Any changes to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) would be ratified at this time.
November 20, 2019: Deadline for clubs to turn in their 40-man reserve lists with the names of players who will be protected in the Rule 5 draft.
December 2, 2019: Clubs must tender contract offers to players on their rosters who are not under contract for the 2020 season, or they will become free agents.
December 9-12, 2019: Winter Meetings in San Diego, Calif.
December 12, 2019: The Rule 5 draft will take place on the final day of the Winter Meetings.
January 10, 2020: Clubs and arbitration-eligible players must exchange salary figures if they were tendered a contract before the Winter Meetings.
January 21, 2020: Hall of Fame voting results will be announced by the BBWAA.
February 1, 2020: Arbitration hearings begin for those eligible players who did not come to terms with their clubs before their hearing date.
February 8, 2020: Pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
February 22, 2020: Mets Grapefruit League season begins with a pair of split-squad games against the Marlins in Port St. Lucie and the Cardinals in Jupiter.
March 26, 2020: Opening Day! The Mets open the season against the Nationals at Citi Field.
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 and we’ll be passing along any and all team news, rumors, buzz, etc. and we will 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 Facebook Page.
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!
