2011 Contract Issues: New York Mets

The Mets face two contractual options after the season:

• Jose Reyes has an $11MM club option with a $500K buyout.  Reyes may be off to a slow start, but it's difficult to see the Mets declining.
• Alex Cora's $2MM for 2011 vests with 80 starts.  He probably won't get there, but sometimes there's still a club option if it does not vest.

The Mets could free up Cora's $2MM, plus another $8MM or so for other departing free agents.  They aren't big names – only Pedro Feliciano and Kelvim Escobar are earning over $1MM in 2010.

On the other side of the ledger, the Mets' increases to players under contract total $16.5MM.  Jason Bay leads with a $9.5MM bump, while David Wright has a $4MM increase.

Expect non-tenders in the arbitration bunch, but the Mets' projected first-time players include Mike Pelfrey, Fernando Nieve, and Manny Acosta.  Sean Green goes for the second time, while Jeff Francoeur, John Maine, and Angel Pagan are third-timers.

It appears that the Mets will have to raise payroll by over $10MM in 2011 just to cover raises to their current players.  They might need to get back to the $140 millions to have room in the budget for quality additions.

Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.