Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

MLB Trade Rumors released its 2023 salary arbitration estimates for all 30 teams on Monday.

The Mets, who had the most salary-arbitration eligible players in the 2022 offseason, have significantly less heading into 2023 with players like Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo, and Brandon Nimmo reaching free agency.

As for this offseason, the Mets have eight arbitration-eligible players:

The Mets can bypass Vogelbach’s arbitration by picking up a $1.5 million team option for the 2023 season (via the contract he signed with the Pirates), which is all but a no-brainer. He put up a 144 wRC+ and .829 OPS in 183 plate appearances with the Mets.

Reliever John Curtiss is also technically arbitration eligible, but the team can (and likely will) pick up a $775,000 option to bypass arbitration, similar to Vogelbach.

The most significant number from the group of arbitration-eligible players is Pete Alonso’s $15.9 million. That’s nearly as much as the other seven players combined.

Alonso has earned that number–over a 100% raise–after blasting 40 home runs and setting a team record with 131 RBIs. He’ll likely get some down-ballot MVP votes. Given this projected contract number, the Mets should look to sign Alonso to a long-term deal this offseason to help smooth out massive average annual values (which affect the luxury tax number) heading into future seasons.

The most interesting number here is Dominic Smith. Could he be a non-tender candidate? He played his way out of the lineup earlier in the season, and the arrival of Vogelbach gave the Mets a productive lefty bat. Smith had more plate appearances in Triple-A than MLB this year. If he’s making $4 million, about the same he did in 2022, is he worth carrying through the offseason and see if you can trade him? You don’t want to tender him a contract only to cut him soon after the season starts (a la Travis d’Arnaud).

It’s one of many, many questions Billy Eppler will have as the offseason gets going.