Mets Come Out Ahead In Jose Reyes Signing

The Mets got a fantastic bargain Thursday in signing Jose Reyes to a four-year contract extension.  New York bought out Reyes’s arbitration years and his first year of free agency.  They also included an option to keep him for the 2011 season at $11MM.

Jon Heyman’s thoughts on the deal:

"I bet Jose Reyes’ four-year $23.25 million contract isn’t the union’s favorite, and well-regarded agent Peter Greenberg sounded almost apologetic at the press conference on Thursday. Reyes almost surely would make more by going year to year, as Derek Jeter did, but that’s not easy to do when you grow up poor, and particularly when you’ve had injuries."

Reyes is just 23 and is in the midst of a breakout season.  His OBP and SLG are by far career bests.  Rickey Henderson seems to have helped this spring.  More teams should try relationships like this.  Even though Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA projection system did not see these spikes coming, projections still indicate that every year of the contract, 2011 included, is a bargain for the Mets.