The New York Mets, the team with the highest estimated payroll in the MLB, are an underdog.
When current owner Steve Cohen bought majority ownership of the Mets in 2020, he wanted to show he was serious about making the Mets a perennial playoff contender once again. Their last appearance was in 2015, when they advanced to the World Series before falling to the Kansas City Royals in five games.
It is important to note that New York is a shared baseball city. For decades, the Mets and New York Yankees have battled each other in the annual Subway Series. Beyond playing for wins in the record book, the teams are playing for the heart of the city. Playoff runs have been tantalizing diehard New York fans for years. In the past decade, the Mets have only had one playoff appearance, while their crosstown rivals have played October baseball seven times.
To regain national and citywide pride, Cohen injected millions of dollars into the roster. In the 2021–2022 offseason, he signed starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander to deals worth more than $40 million annually. Now, fast forward to the 2023–2024 season, the Mets total payroll sits at $348.7 million. Except, rather than being led by Scherzer, Verlander, and the huge salaries that follow them on the mound, the Mets are being led by the southpaw starting pitcher trio of David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana. The lefty triad of Peterson, Manaea and Quintana’s combined salary this season is $29.6 million, yet they have posted 27 wins and a 3.45 ERA.
This season, Scherzer and Verlander have not suited up in a game for the Mets. They were traded away in the offseason while the Mets continue to pay their salaries. Of the $348.7 million the Mets are on the books for, only $261.5 million is still on their roster this season. It is normal for teams to have some “dead salary”, or salary paid to players no longer on the roster — but not nearly 25 percent of the payroll.
Even though Cohen has handed out some bad contracts, not every nine-figure deal has turned out poorly. Shortstop Francisco Lindor, who the Mets inked to a ten-year contract extension worth $341 million in 2021, has played MVP level ball on both sides of the field. Lindor leads the national league in FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, a statistic designed to show how much value a player adds to their team, while playing every single game for the Mets this season. The former eighth overall pick of the Guardians is slashing .268/.340/.492 with 31 home runs and 27 stolen bases through the Mets’ first 146 games. Even with all his production on the offensive side of the ball, Lindor remains one of the best defensive shortstops in the league. A wizard with the glove, Lindor has posted seven defensive runs saved, a metric that indicates how many runs a player has saved or cost his team in comparison to others at his position.
Winners of eight out of their last 10, the Mets now sit at 80–66, one game ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the third Wild Card spot and just 2 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the top Wild Card spot.
A combination of youth, unexpected performances from veterans, and MVP level play from their superstar have transported the Mets right back into contention. Maybe 2024 can finally be the year the Mets take back the pride of New York City with a deep postseason run.
