JAN. 13: The Mets have also avoided arb with setup man Addison Reed and closer Jeurys Familia, per a pair of reports from Heyman and James Wagner of the New York Times (Twitter links). Reed will earn $7.75MM and Familia will take home $7.425MM. Familia was projected to earn $8.7MM and came in a fair bit shy of that sum, while Reed’s unique background somewhat “broke” MLBTR’s arbitration model and resulted in a $10.6MM projection. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, who designed the model, explained earlier this week why Reed’s case was something of an outlier and suggested at the time that a salary in the range of $8MM was more likely.
JAN. 12: The Mets have avoided arbitration with first baseman Lucas Duda, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Duda will receive $7.25MM in the deal.
That’s a fairly healthy bump over the MLBTR projection of $6.725MM, which would have been a repeat of Duda’s 2016 salary. Ultimately, he’ll get about half a million more after an injury-limited season in which he took just 172 plate appearances.
Duda will be looking to get on track before hitting the open market after the season. First, he’ll need to return to health after a long layoff due to back surgery. If he’s able to do that, there’s certainly reason to think he can be a productive bat at first base. Between 2014 and 2015, he slashed .249/.350/.483 with 57 home runs.
Good move. Though I see Lucas on a Yankee or Dodger team where he is not the “go to”. If you have guys hitting around him, Lucas can hit
Probably won’t be Yanks. They have young depth at 1st base. But I agree, he won’t be a Met much longer.
One more year… I would agree that he’d do better with some more help in a lineup
He has to prove that his good years were not a blip. Not sure why the cheapies gave a raise to a guy that didn’t play much
From 2011-2015, a five year stretch, he put up an OPS+ of 125. That’s a really good hitter.
Last year was his only bad year and it was a small, injured sample size.
Exactly. Clearly this ignorant Yankee “fan” doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about.
You mean Cheapons, ok?
if, if and IF
Duda’s been a punching bag for the fans since the World Series, but he’s a perfectly good complimentary piece on a team with a deep lineup – which unfortunately isn’t the current state of affairs for the Mets unless a lot of factors break right.
So let’s make sense of this he gets a $500k raise on 175 at bats. I would’ve gone to arbitration. Can’t see losing that case. Make no sense at all
Agreed. If he could hit 6 or 7, he’d be a real asset. Not with the Mets. Can’t wait to see the back of him (or 2-3 major signings to bump him to 7 – not holding my breath).
Mets sure are throwing a lot of money at players (Duda, Bruce, d’Arnaud) they would trade in a heartbeat if any other team valued them as much as they do.
Duda was top 10 in the NL in both OPS and OPS+ in 2014 and 2015.
Pretty sure other teams value that kind of production and $7 million for one year of that might be a lot of money if it’s still 2004.
And yet the Mets have been shopping him for at least two years with no takers. There is a glut on the market of corner power hitters better than Duda.
Where have they been “shopping him”, FantasyLand? In the two years he was, y’know, in the top 10 in the NL in OPS and OPS+ I never read a single, serious report of him being shopped so you might be mistaken. The Mets front office has liked him all along and value what he does. They even tried him in the OF (lol) to get his bat in the lineup and choose him over fan favorite Ike Davis at 1B. (pretty smart move) That’s a far cry from “shopping” him.
As far as this “glut of hitters better than Duda”, why don’t you tell me which ones produced better numbers than Duda in 2014-2015?
That called the ‘Genius’ of being Sandy
If you assume the Mets dump Jay Bruce for a reliever, and gobbeavy on platoon lineups, they aren’t bad offensively, especially vs RHP:
Vs RHP: Reyes (3B) – Cabrera – Cespedes – Granderson – Walker – Duda – Conforto – Catcher
Vs LHP: Granderson – Cabrera – Cespedes – Walker – Flores (1B) – Wright- Catcher – Lagares
*gibbeavy should be “go heavy”…
Your assumption that there is a market for Bruce is your first mistake.
Jay Bruce can still put up better offensive #’s than probably half of the other right fielders, though his defense is statue-esque, which hurts his metrics. There is an over supply of bats right now, so I don’t think anyone thinks he will move quickly. His cost ($13m) is fair, but it limits certain teams unless the Mets kick in some money, and everyone knows how much their ownership likes spending money….
Even with faint praise, you still overestimate both Bruce’s production and his value.
Bad trade, bad roster addition, bad roster problem.
Mets only need doodie bags for one more year. I actually like him, and forever rub in my families face that I picked him over Davis against all odds. But, with smith near MLB ready, a mid season call up for any injury to duda, and at very least a September callup, smith will be the starting first baseman in 2018.
Smith seems to be a very light player sorta like James Loney. Good defense and maybe a .250 -.290 bat with not much pop.
I believe they see Smith as way more than that. Is 21 and hit 14hr with 91 RBI last year. The power should come on even more as he gets older……Hopefully.
I have read that his HR’s were more of the Cheapo kind. I would love to see him develop to be more than that.
Wasn’t Loney expected to add slightly more power with age too? And he never really did.
He’s definately going to get some nice cheapo ones next year in Las Vegas.
Do you know how many minor leaguers are expected to add power? These kids are drafted at 18 or younger. That doesn’t make him the next Loney. Maybe Rosario is the next Loney too by those standards.
He is expected to have pop. That’s why they drafted him. And I no way is he expected to be a 240 hitter?! They look at him to be a solid firstbasemen in all areas, fielding, hitting, power, production, on base etc. will he be, who knows. Nobody ever knows. He is a prospect. Davis was suppose to be the Mets lord and savor too. And degrom was suppose to end up in the bullpen. Either way, the road is paved for smith to take over by the end of this upcoming season and the start of next year, possibly earlier should there be a long term injury or lack of production from doodie.