As Mets fans still grapple with the Zack Wheeler news, the debate begins on how long the Mets should wait to call-up super prospect Noah Syndergaard in light of the open rotation spot (well, open if you don’t consider Dillon Gee a viable candidate).
Of course, with the Mets, the decision is never based on baseball alone, but financial implications.
Adam Rubin sent out this tweet on Monday:
If you wait until Day 21 of season, then free agency is delayed by a year.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinMedia) March 16, 2015
Since a player’s free agency status is based on their service time – with six years of service time the length of team control – teams are wise to manipulate the call-up dates of their top prospects. Anything to save a year from having to bid against the league for their homegrown talent.
A year of service time is defined as 172 days on the 25-man roster (which includes time spent on the disabled list). There are 183 days during the regular season, meaning the number to hold a player off the 25-man roster, and save a year of service time, is 12 days. Since Syndergaard is already on the 40-man roster, per Adam Rubin, an option is rescinded and re-credited in days, thus making 21 the magic number of days the Mets must hold him back to keep him from gaining a year of service in 2015.
Adding to the service time fun is Super Two consideration. Players who have earned two years of service time, but not yet three, are eligible for an added year of arbitration if they rank within the top 22% of all two-year players. Normally, players must wait until they have earned three full years of service time to be arbitration eligible.
The cut-off for Super Two players in 2015 is two years and 133 days of service. Usually, the cut-off is after two years and somewhere between 128 and 140 days. Using the minimum, 128 days, during a 183 day season, means a team would have to wait 56 days to keep a player from reaching Super Two status in their third year of playing.
This means the Mets have a few options. They can let Syndergaard make the Opening Day roster. Probably not a wise choice given where he is in terms of development, needing a few more AAA starts, and also not wanting to risk losing an entire year of free agency over a possible one or two starts in 2015. They can wait beyond the 21-day threshold, until June 1, to make sure that Syndergaard doesn’t become a Super Two eligible player after the 2017 season. Or they can call him up somewhere in between.
My thought is that the Mets should definitely wait past the 21 days, because that makes sense both from a baseball and financial standpoint. Waiting until June 1 would be upsetting, unless it was purely developmental, because that would mean the team is willing to lose 2015 productivity to save arbitration dollars (not even years of team control) between 2017-2020.
So I am curious.
What do Mets fans think the team should do in light of the Zack Wheeler injury and service time considerations highlighted above?
- Let Thor make the Opening Day roster, forfeiting that extra year of free agency in 2021?
- Call him up on April 27, gaining the extra year of team control, but risking Super Two status in 2017?
- Call him up on June 1, gaining both the extra year of team control and holding off Super Two status through 2017?
Another original article from Metsmerized Online!
