With the 2014 season over it's now time to focus our attention to the 2015 off-season. With the emergence of our young stars this season and the return of the "Dark Knight of Flushing," this off-season is going to be a critical one for Sandy Alderson and company. First lets take a look at the budget he has to work with and his contract obligations in 2015.
2015 Budget
A total of 50 players were a part of the Mets 40 man roster during the 2014 season. 8 were either Designated for Assignment or Released during the season and 2 have spent the season on the 60 Day DL thus exempting them from the roster. Combined, these players accounted for a full year payroll of $91,800,000. This figure is down 2% from 2013's payroll of $93,700,000. If we make a safe assumption that the same percentage decline will be applied for 2015 budget, then Sandy Alderson will be working with a 2015 payroll of $89,900,000.
2015 Contractual Obligations
Only 4 Mets players are signed to committed major league contracts next season:
| Player | Contract | 2014 salary | 2015 salary | Raise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
David Wright
|
8 yrs/$138m
|
$20,000,000
|
$20,000,000
|
$0
|
Curtis Granderson
|
4 yrs/$60m
|
$13,000,000
|
$16,000,000
|
$3,000,000
|
Bartolo Colon
|
2 yrs/$20m
|
$9,000,000
|
$11,000,000
|
$2,000,000
|
Jonathan Niese
|
5 yrs/$25.5m
|
$5,000,000
|
$7,000,000
|
$2,000,000
|
While it is conceivable that Colon will be traded this off-season, until it actually happens, Alderson needs to plan to have him and his pay raise on the roster. Granderson's contract is center loaded, so his salary will peak in 2015, while Niese's contract continues to be team friendly. In the 3 years since signing the deal, Niese has been worth ~$23.8m according to Fangraphs.
So a total of $54,000,000 or 60% of the payroll is already tied to these 4 players before we even get to renewable contracts or arbitration cases. This is going to make Alderson's job very difficult as this off-season as he will probably not have much room to work with unless he trades Colon or Niese. We'll take a look all the young guys and their renewable contract next week and see where we stand.
3 comments:
$56MM in 4 guys who are old or whose health is suspect. Makes Sandy's job even tougher.
So both Grandy's and Colon's contracts are weighted to have higher $$ in later (and presumably lesser potential due to age) years. In a realistic world, Colon gets $11MM or $12MM in 2014 and $8MM or $9MM in 2015, because one would have expected a guy his age to have slippage. By doing it $9MM in 2014 and $11MM in 2015, they are playing games and keeping their fingers crossed they could pay cheaper in 2014 and somehow dump him part way thru and get out of this whole financially.
More likely, they are burdening future years when they backload contracts. Grandy's is backloaded too. At some point, that has to stop, because it means less $$ to spend in future years when the backloading hits.
Or it means that they will increase spending in future year to account for such "raises"
I don't think it is a fair assumption to simply apply an exact deduction in payroll based on the previous year. I don't know anywhere that it was stated that they would be reducing payroll this year. Certainly resources are scarce, but I really think the 2015 budget will be more based on assumptions on what may be due payable 2016-2020. Don't make any dumb trades or add bad contracts, just for the sake of saying payroll was increased.
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