The Mets have decided in recent years to try and out-spend other teams. Now they’re spending more for players to be on other squads than they’re paying the remaining players on their own.
New York has offloaded the contracts of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and several other major players ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline. In order to secure better prospects in return for the dealt MLB players, the Mets often sent over cash to help pay off the deals and reduce the cost an opposing team would have to pay.
The Mets began the season with the highest payroll in baseball history at $344 million with the hopes that some major spending would help fuel a second straight playoff appearance. Instead, New York has fallen behind three teams in the NL East and dropped out of legit playoff contention as one of the most disappointing teams in 2023.
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How much are the Mets paying players to be on other teams, and how much are they paying their own players? Here’s what you need to know.
Mets payroll 2023
Steve Cohen’s paying off contracts in trades has helped to bolster the Mets’ farm system. It’s also meant their retained salary is higher than their active payroll.
According to Spotrac, the Mets are paying out $156,495,419 in retained salaries, which are players that have been traded away, released, bought out for declined options. That comes out to $16,018,008 more than the team’s active payroll of $140,477,411. It also doesn’t include the additional $1,193,248 being paid to Bobby Bonilla and the $250,000 being paid to Bret Saberhagen.
There is still quite a bit more salary left on the injured list — a total of $41,643,957. Players like Starling Marte and Edwin Diaz would add $35 million to the active payroll if active. But while Marte is expected to be back shortly, Diaz is out for the year.
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That $156.5 million is not only more than New York’s active roster, it’s also more than the payrolls of half the league’s teams. The Twins have the 16th-largest salary at $153,822,485. New York’s retained salary is also larger than the two lowest teams — the Pirates ($68,770,700) and the Athletics ($56,235,875) — combined ($125,006,575).
Even after trading players like Verlander and Scherzer under big contracts, the Mets still have several major deals still on the books. Francisco Lindor is under contract through 2031 as part of a 10-year, $341 million extension; Brandon Nimmo is signed through 2030 on an eight-year, $162 million deal; Diaz’s deal is five years, $102 million through 2028; Marte has three years left on his four-year, $78 million contract; Kodai Senga has two more years remaining before he can opt out of his five-year, $75 million deal.
Per Spotrac, the Mets have $195,721,859 on the payroll for 2024 and $138 million on the books in 2025. Through 2027, each year is at least $102 million.