According to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag on Twitter, Wilmer Flores won his arbitration case against the Mets on Saturday, and will earn $2.2 million this season, $400K more than the Mets’ offer of $1.8 million dollars.
Flores, 25, is the first Met since Oliver Perez in 2008 to go before an arbitration hearing, and he will receive a big pay raise in return, as the infielder earned $526,014 last year.
A fan favorite, Flores appeared in 103 games for the Mets in 2016, playing all four infield positions, while belting 16 home runs, driving in 49 runs, and hitting at a .267/.319/.469 clip in 335 at-bats with a career best 112 wRC+.
However, it was against left-handed pitching that Flores did most of his damage, becoming baseball’s premier weapon against them with a 1.093 OPS, 190 OPS+ and .710 SLG in 107 plate appearances versus southpaws.
Flores was interviewed last month on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio, and said that he expects the team to return to the postseason in 2017.
“When we got to the World Series in 2015, it’s no secret that our pitching took us to the World Series,” Flores said. “We’re built on pitching and it’s going to be healthy, so it’s going to be an interesting year.”
Flores will also be arbitration eligible in 2018 and 2019, after which he will become a free agent. He said this offseason that he enjoys playing at second base most, but with Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera holding down the middle infield, look for Flores to spend the majority of his playing time platooning at first base with Lucas Duda.
