With the New York Mets recently reaching pre-arbitration settlements with five of their eligible players, and the addition of free agent Alejandro De Aza to a one year deal worth $5.75 million dollars, here is the most current Opening Day payroll projection for 2016.
Guaranteed Contracts ($78.05 Million)
David Wright – $20.0 Million
Curtis Granderson – $16.0 Million
Asdrubal Cabrera – $8.25 Million
Bartolo Colon – $7.25 Million
Alejandro De Aza – $5.75 Million
Addison Reed – $5.3 Million
Matt Harvey – $4.325 Million
Jerry Blevins – $4.0 Million
Ruben Tejada – $3.0 Million
Juan Lagares – $2.5 Million
Carlos Torres – $1.05 Million
Josh Edgin – $625 K
The guaranteed contracts amount to $78.05 million for 12 players.
Arbitration ($26.6 Million)
Neil Walker – $11.8 Million ($9.4M)
Lucas Duda – $7.4 Million ($5.9M)
Jeurys Familia – $4.8 Million ($3.3M)
Jenrry Mejia – $2.6 Million ($2.4M)
The Mets exchanged arbitration figures with four players on Friday. I’ve included the player’s arbitration filling along with what the Mets filed in parentheses. The player’s total amounts to $26.6 million compared to $21 million for the Mets. That’s a difference of $5.5 million.
That amounts to $101.55 million for 15 roster spots, not including Jenrry Mejia who starts the season on the suspended list. I used an aggregate of $600,000 to calculate the remaining 10 roster spots at $6.0 million dollars.
Projected 2016 Payroll – $108.05 Million Dollars
That puts the current Mets payroll projection at $108.05 million dollars or roughly $5 million more than Opening Day in 2015. It could fall to as much as $5 million dollars less depending on what happens in arbitration. But I’m pretty certain that won’t happen and the players will all win their cases in front of the independent arbitrators.
Final Thoughts
Mets GM Sandy Alderson spoke to reporters earlier this month and said he hopes his team will open 2016 with a “somewhat higher” payroll than the roughly $103 million mark it stood at on Opening Day last year.
Sandy believes payroll could rise to $115 million or more throughout the season. “So my hope is we’ll start with a somewhat higher payroll — I don’t know exactly what that will be — than we started at last year. And we’ll have room at the deadline to make acquisitions, as we did last year.”
Of course, the Mets are reportedly still in the hunt for Yoenis Cespedes and that could change the payroll landscape significantly. If that doesn’t happen they still would like to add right-handed outfielder/first baseman type for the bench.
There’s also a possibility they could add a setup type reliever for the bullpen, but last week it was reported that they could just go with what they have, as the remaining free agent relievers are still too pricey and they do not want to give more than one year to any of them.
