While it appears the Mets will be in no rush to re-sign Yoenis Cespedes as reported by Buster Olney, there will be a lot of housekeeping decisions the front office will make as they get ready for a new hot stove season.
The Mets started their march to 2017 by exercising their option on Jose Reyes – a no-brainer for a player who provided some modest production and put a positive charge into the lineup. While the Colorado Rockies remain on the hook for the $41 million still owed to Reyes, the Mets get him for the major league minimum of $507,500.
Another no-brainer was the decision not to pick up Jon Niese’s $10 million dollar option and paying the $500K buyout instead.
The next important decisions facing the Mets is deciding whether to exercise the $13 million option on Jay Bruce and whether they should make a $17.2 million qualifying offer on second baseman Neil Walker.
My guess is that they split the deck and exercise the option on Bruce and not tender a QO to Walker. Bringing back Bruce does two things, it gives them insurance if they can’t bring back Cespedes, and he provides the team with a nice trade asset if Ces comes back. While the team’s financial fortunes have definitely improved, they are still not at a place where they will gamble $17.2 million on Walker’s back surgery.
Two Mets I hope to see back are utility man Kelly Johnson and right-hander Bartolo Colon. Both players have proven to be solid commodities to have on hand and also help keep the bench and clubhouse loose. Neither of them is going to break the bank.
The front office has their hands full with a dozen players eligible for arbitration. Here they are with their updated MLBTR projections:
- Josh Edgin – ($500K) $800,000
- Jeurys Familia – ($4.1M) $8,700,000
- Lucas Duda – ($6.725M) $6,700,000
- Matt Harvey – ($4.3M) $5,200,000
- Jacob deGrom – ($600K) $4,500,000
- Rene Rivera – ($1.7M) $2,200,000
- Addison Reed – ($5.2M) $10,600,000
- Wilmer Flores – ($520K) $1,900,000
- Travis d’Arnaud – ($540K) $1,700,000
- Justin Ruggiano – ($180K) $1,500,000
- Jim Henderson – ($507K) $1,400,000
- Zack Wheeler – ($546K) $1,000,000
Looking at that list I have to figure the only non-tenders will be Justin Ruggiano and Jim Henderson, and I’m not sure what the Mets do with Rene Rivera. I really have it in my mind that Sandy Alderson is going to completely blowup and revamp the catching situation. How exactly, I have no idea, it’s just a hunch. There was a lot of disappointment with TDA.
So before the Mets begin any of their offseason shopping, these are some of the in-house decisions they’ll take care of first. After that it will be onward and upward to quote a phrase.
