Debby Wong-USA Today Sports
The New York Mets have made it no secret that they continue to monitor every penny spent and will not be able to splurge as they have in year’s past. The unfortunate problem that they are now facing(and it is only unfortunate for the Wilpon’s), is the fact that in the next couple hours, three of their young players will have filed an arbitration case with the MLB player’s union: Bobby Parnell, Ike Davis and Daniel Murphy.
The bottom line is that all three of these players are worth a substantial amount of money more than they made in 2012. Parnell made a whopping $504,000 last season, while Davis came in at just over $506,000. Murphy was the biggest earner at a bit over $512,000. The Mets will be lucky if they are not made to cough up at least another million or two for each player, especially Davis, who hit 32HRs and drove in 90 in 2012, while being one of the better defensive first baseman in the league.
Murphy is a player that will hit for average and has become more stable at second base, and Parnell, while we all found out he wasn’t cut out for a closers’ role, still pitched to a 2.49ERA, and struck out 61 batters in 68.2IP. He again would fit perfectly in a seventh or eighth inning role and could be a stalwart in the Mets bullpen for quite some time.
Friday is the deadline for the Mets and these three players to come to some sort of an agreement about their salaries. I would assume that in the cash-strapped world of the Mets, it would be in their best interest to come off some money now, than a lot more later if an arbitrator is involved. But we all know that the Mets do not always take the easy way out. These are three battles that Sandy Alderson and the Mets will be sure to lose.
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