Free Link to Mets360: A payroll-neutral look at the Mets’ arbitration-eligible players

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By Brian Joura

This is the list of Mets eligible for arbitration, courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors. The number in parentheses is the service time the player has accrued, while the following number is MLBTR’s estimate of what the player will make in arbitration.

Daniel Vogelbach (5.138): $2.6MM
Trevor Gott (5.057): $2MM
Elieser Hernandez (5.044): $1.6MM
Drew Smith (5.034): $2.3MM
Pete Alonso (5.000): $22MM
Luis Guillorme (4.159): $1.7MM
Tim Locastro (4.122): $1.6MM
Joey Lucchesi (4.112): $2MM
Sam Coonrod (4.078): $900K
Jeff Brigham (3.142): $1.1MM
John Curtiss (3.137): $1MM
David Peterson (3.089): $2MM
DJ Stewart (2.168): $1.5MM

It’s impossible to make a claim on which players the club should offer arbitration to without knowing the parameters of the club’s budget and post-season aspirations. A player might make sense under one set of circumstances and not make sense under another. If somehow the Mets’ goal this season is a payroll under the threshold where the draft-pick penalty kicks in – unlikely, but not out of the question – many of these players will be kicked to the curb.

Because of that unknown, what follows is my opinion of the player’s worth compared to the MLBTR estimate, in a payroll-neutral environment. What type of role would the player have? What would be the likely production of the player in 2024? How easy would it be to replicate the player’s production at a cheaper rate? These are some of the things to consider in this hypothetical world. On to the players.

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