Mets Have A Fascinating Group of Arbitration Players

The New York Mets have a total of ten players who will be eligible for arbitration this season, and there are some players on their list who represent important offseason decisions.  

Darragh McDonald of MLBTradeRumors.com compiled a list of the Mets candidates that included their projected salary numbers, and it’s well worth a deeper dive to see who’s going to get what and some of the different calls that will need to be made. 

Here’s a rundown of the key players and what will likely be involved in the decisions. 

The list includes pitchers Cionel Perez, Tylor Megill, Reed Garrett, Austin Warren, and Dedniel Nunez. The position players are Christopher Morel, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty and Cristian Pache. 

Francisco Alvarez, C

Alvarez has become the ultimate tease during his brief career for the Mets, and he’s currently making $3.164 million while being on track to hit $4.1 million, per McDonald. He flashes glimpses of enormous power at times, but Alvarez makes bad mistakes constantly and his abysmal record in ABS challenges was a serious pain point this year. 

The money numbers are low here, which makes Alvarez easy to keep, but this might be the ideal time to trade him given the value of his power numbers and the Mets' enormous range of needs. 

Brett Baty, INF

Baty’s one of the toughest players on this list to evaluate, as the Mets did him dirty this year by signing Bo Bichette to play third base right before the season that sent Baty on a positional journey that helped tank his offensive numbers. 

His arbitration numbers are low. He made $3.088 million this year with an expected arbitration number of $2.5 million. He’s an automatic keeper, but what happens after that really depends on whether Bichette exercises his opt-out after the World Series. If Bichette stays, Baty could still have a utility role, but it needs to be more limited to the positions he can play well (i.e., infield only, with limited time at first base and shortstop). 

Dedniel Nunez, RHP

Give this man a raise! Nunez made $3.074 this year, but his arbitration number is $900K. He was solid in relief in the second half of the year, though, and he’s a keeper. Bringing him back at slightly more than what he made this year is something of a no-brainer, as the Mets really have no idea which one of their second-half relievers is going to be able to stick and duplicate the good numbers that several of them posted.