You may be watching the MLB playoffs, or you may be taking a break from it all after a rough season. Either way, if you are a true Mets fan, you are already thinking about what comes next.
As you can see by the “Important dates” listing in the side column of our site, there are some pretty big things coming up for the front office. This would include key decisions on who would receive Qualifying Offers, what potential trades can be negotiated, and where to pick up club options that are available. You are also anxiously awaiting the decisions of those who have player options.
This post aims to arm you with some important data to consider as these pivotal decisions come down.
The Calander: MLB’s activity timeline is always tied to the end of the World Series. On the fifth day after the World Series ends, personnel actions open up: Trades can formally be enacted, free agents are allowed to sign with other teams, and Qualifying Offers (QOs) must be finalized. The series will end some time between October 29th and November 2nd depending upon how many games are required. This pegs those key personnel dates between November 3rd (early series completion) and November 7th (late series completion).
In addition to the post-series activities, players that have received QOs are given until November 18th to decide whether to accept or reject. Another significant date is December 1st, when the collective bargaining agreement expires. If there is no agreement before then, expect all baseball activity to halt until there is resolution.
The Payroll: The current 28-man active roster for the Mets contains a lot more youth than prior rosters, with many players under team control or arbitration eligible players. Only eight players remain with long term contracts in place that commit salary and one of them, Bo Bichette, has the ability to opt out of the remaining two years on his deal. These eight (assuming Bo stays) commit the team to $217.35M which is far below last year’s roughly $350M in salary obligation.
A caveat here is that Jorge Polanco, who is under contract to receive $23M next year, is on the IL but barring a trade or release will be on the active roster in 2027.
Another caveat is that the 12 players making league minimum (assumed to be $1M next year but subject to the CBA negotiations) will add $12M to the bottom line and the eleven arbitration eligible players will add more.
Here are the current commitments:
This table can be expanded to include the full 28-man roster by including estimates of $1M salaries for those earning MLB minimum salary and estimates from Sportrac of post-arbitration salaries for the rest. I started to do that, but realized that it was futile because all of the “fill in the blanks” information is deeply dependent upon what is agreed upon in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement whenever that is finalized. Instead, here is a table of the arbitration eligible players over the next two seasons from the current team:
12 comments:
Another aspect that needs to be considered are those that will need to be protected from the Rule 5. Three strong players to be considered include Rojas, Gill Hill and Reimer. An additional level of complexity.
Here is a question: If Bichette opts out, can the Mets offer him a qualifying offer? If so, it will be less than he would be scheduled to make next season, but it would provide them with a compensatory pick on increase the cost to whatever team signs him. I wonder, in other words, how the current CBA interprets multi year contracts with opt out clauses. At some level it makes sense to view the second year of his contract as a de facto QO, but in another sense it does not since the QO is set universally by positions.. It would be odd for the league not to count the year of compensation written into a multi year contract after a contractually established opt out option as a QO since that provides no compensatory advantage to a team that offers such contracts.
The Mets can’t offer Bichette a QO since Toronto offered him a QO last year. A player can only be offered one QO in his career
Steve, I doubt Reimer needs to be protected. He is in AA, had a bad year, and is poor defensively. Don’t see a team willing to carry him on the MLB roster all year.
Even without last year's QO, Bichette would no longer be on the roster after opting out, and therefore not eligible for a QO. It is all up to him to decide whether to be a Met.
Bo will stay
Kodai Senga is only signed for one more year, 2027
MY belief is he will go west in 2027
I included Reimer because in the discussions regard who to / not protect, his name is always included. He did have a down year to start. His BABIP was down significant from last year and his career norm. Leads to the conclusion that he was probably being unlucky. Upon his return and with better hitters, around him, his batting stats all improved except for the home runs. In regard to his fielding, the scouting reports say that he has made great strides there so that he is now probably an average third baseman fielding wise. He also plays first base which I see as an area of need (Contrary to others but we already had that discussion). I would move to protect him and then include in a trade in a position of need.
I’d be more inclined to protect Marco Varga than Reimer. Marco was hurt and sputtering in the first half, but had a great 2nd half in BINGHAMTON: 331/.399/.496 in 35 AA games. The last time Reimer did that was…NEVER?
Marco would be someone that would be under consideration, if he was eligible and needed to be protected. Vargas was technically signed under the 2023 international signing period although he did play in the DSL in 2022. A wrinkle in the eligibility rules.
I love watching the Mets - always have. I was in the Polo Grounds when Jimmy Pearsall hit his 100th HR and ran around the bases backwards! Love them. In the old days at the end of the radio broadcasts Howard Cosell and Ralph Brancy.a would discuss the merits of the Mets team vs. the opponents they had just lost to. Always the Mets were the superior team - just didn't click that day.
When the team was first composed and in the decades Mets Fans have been fans of the teams' players - not the Team. We associate with the players -not the team.
Looking forward I hope young, enthusiastic players will delight me, and that their collective effort will result in a winning season - I'd love the post season, but most of all, because it would provide that much more time for me to enjoy the team.
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