New York Mets News: Mets Avoids Arbitration With All Players

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New York Mets News: Mets Are Able To Avoid Arbitration With All Players Once Again

Earlier in the MLB offseason, we took a look at some of the arbitration eligible players the New York Mets had. A total of six were eligible for the arbitration process, but only two of them, Lucas Duda and Jenrry Mejia, remained after Daniel Murphy, Bobby Parnell, Dillon Gee and Ruben Tejada all avoided arbitration with one-year deals. The Mets will now be able to avoid the arbitration process altogether, as they agreed to one-year deals with both Duda and Mejia in the last week.

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Duda and the Mets settled on a one-year contract that will pay him $4.2 million for the 2015 season. That will be a nice increase in pay for Duda, who made only $1,637,500 during a breakout 2014 campaign. Duda came out of virtually nowhere for the Mets, who picked him to be their regular first baseman over Ike Davis, who was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He ended the season in the top-5 of the NL in both home runs and RBI with 30 and 92 on the season.

Going into the process, Duda filed for $4.7 million, while the Mets countered with $3.75 million. The $4.2 million they agreed upon is roughly in the middle of the two amounts offered by each side. He will be under the Mets’ control through the 2017 season.

Mejia settled on a one-year contract for 2015 with the Mets last week, as he will be paid $2.595 million this upcoming season. Like Duda, that is a nice pay raise for Mejia, who pitched in 2014 for $509,675. He earned the increase in pay, coming into his own much like Duda did with a breakout season. He did not take the same path as Duda, as he was removed from the starting rotation before flourishing as the Mets’ closer.

Mejia finished the season with 93.2 innings pitched, striking out 98 batters in the process to go along with a 1.48 WHIP and 3.65 ERA. He finished the season with a 6-6 record and 28 saves, blowing only three. Mejia was especially strong out of the bullpen, walking less batters per nine innings and giving up less extra-base hits despite pitching 19 more innings out of the bullpen.

Earlier in the offseason, Mejia had requested to make $3.1 million, while the Mets countered with $2.1 million. Like Duda, the number the two sides agreed upon is roughly in the middle, but Mets made out well according to MLBTradeRumors.com; they projected Mejia to make $3.1 million, and he didn’t even request that large of an amount. Mejia will also be under team control through 2017.

Avoiding arbitration isn’t something new for the Mets, who have only had to go all the way in the process once since 1992; it occurred in 2008 when super agent Scott Boras’ player, Oliver Perez was up for arbitration and the two sides could not agree to a deal.

Next: Top 25 New York Athletes of 2014