MMs Off-Season Series: 40 Man Roster Changes and Non-Tenders

     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. We already took a look at Alderson's starting budget and the players already contractual committed here. We reviewed all the team friendly, renewable contracts for the young stars here and Arbitration Cases were looked at here. Now lets look at the 40 man roster we have to start with this off-season....

40 Man Roster

Starters	Relievers	Catchers	Infielders	Outfielders	60 Day DL
Bartolo Colon	Carlos Torres	Anthony Recker	David Wright	Curtis Granderson	Matt Harvey
Jonathan Niese	Scott Rice	Travis d'Arnaud	Daniel Murphy	Eric Young Jr.	Bobby Parnell
Dillon Gee	Jenrry Mejia	Juan Centeno	Lucas Duda	Andrew Brown
Zack Wheeler	Gonzalez Germen		Ruben Tejada	Juan Lagares
Rafael Montero	Juerys Familia		Josh Satin	Matt den Dekker
Jacob deGrom	Victor Black		Eric Campbell	Kirk Nieuwenhuis
Steven Matz	Dana Eveland		Wilmer Flores	Cesar Puello
Daisuke Matsuzaka	Buddy Carlyle		Dilson Herrera	Bobby Abreu
	Josh Edgin		Wilfredo Tovar
	Erik Goeddel
	Dario Alvarez
	Jeff Walters

     First thing's first, 5 days after the conclusion of the Worlds Series, teams need to move all players from the 60 day DL back to the 40 man roster. Luckily for the Mets, Bobby Abreu and Daisuke Matsuzaka are only Free Agents eligible guys on the list so this makes for 2 easy transactions. 

Contract Expired: RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka and OF Bobby Abreu

Reinstated: RHP Matt Harvey and RHP Bobby Parnell

     Next we need to think about the Rule 5 draft. We will be reviewing the cases in our next edition but for now lets assume the Mets need to clear a total of 4 spots to protect prospects who are eligible for the draft. 

Non-Tenders

     The easiest non-tenders always come from the bullpen. MLB bullpens are always a revolving door in the back end of them and unfortunately for Buddy Carlyle, the Mets have a bunch of right handed pitching depth they would rather use then to give him an arbitration raise. 

Release: RHP Buddy Carlyle

Budget Savings: $1,000,000

Current Budget: $97,509,000

     The next non-tender should come from the over-stuffed OF currently on the roster. Eric Young Jr. has seen his role diminish from an everyday LF starter to nothing more than an occasional pinch runner 2-3 times a week. If the Mets are going to continue having a speed only guy on the bench, they are going to want to pay a lot less than $2.3M for it.

Release: OF Eric Young Jr.

Budget Savings: $2,300,000

Current Budget: $95,209,000

     For the 3rd non tender, I'll look at Ruben Tejada. With Wilmer Flores playing an "adequate" defensive game at SS and possessing a bat far superior to Tejada's, Ruben finds himself demoted to a late inning defensive replacement role. But wait....Tejada isn't that good of a SS... while 2014 was his best defensive year with a +6 defensive run saved, his career rate is still a lackluster -2 DRS in almost 3,000 innings. In addition, the Mets have a young defensive minded SS on the 40 man roster in Wilfredo Tovar. In 80 AA games last season, Tovar only committed 3 errors at SS and 2 at 2B. Baseball America also called Tovar the team "Best Defensive Infielder in the System." Either the Mets are going to roll with Flores at SS or they are going to trade for/sign a Free Agent SS. In either case, Tejada is the odd man out.

Release: SS Ruben Tejada

Budget Savings: $1,700,000

Current Budget: $93,509,000

     This last one is a tough one. Based on team and managerial trends, Terry Collins likes to hold 5 OF, 6 IF, and 2 C on his roster. When looking at the current roster, we immediately look at Satin, Campbell, Brown, Den Dekker, Nieuwenhuis, and Puello. Satin, Den Dekker, and Campbell still have options remaining so keeping them gives the club flexibility. This leaves us with Brown, Kirk, and Puello. Puello still has prospect upside so the club will be hard pressed to let him go, which may in turn force them to keep him on the roster as the 5th OF. So your left with Kirk and Brown. When you look at just those two you realize....."the Mets bench guys are Recker, Campbell, Satin, and Puello....all righties." That makes the decision easy for me.

Release: OF Andrew Brown

Budget Savings: $550,000

Current Budget: $92,959,000