New York Mets' Top Five Salaries Include Two Ghost Players

The New York Mets have a $300 million payroll for 2024 and some of it won't even play for the team in 2024.

The New York Mets are not averse to spending money. Owner Steve Cohen has made that abundantly clear.

The Mets were in pursuit of pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a player that would have cost them in excess of $300 million. They were early players for $700 million-man Shohei Ohtani, too. Neither signed.

So the Mets haven’t spent a great deal of money this offseason as president of baseball operations David Stearns resets the organization and his roster to prepare the Mets for what they hope will be a fruitful 2025.

There are other reasons not to spend. The Mets found out last month that they owed Major League Baseball a $100.7 million tax bill, which is a record in the era of the Competitive Balance Tax. In fact, the Mets obliterated the old record — $43.6 million in tax paid by the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Mets appear set to do it again in 2024. According to FanGraphs, the Mets have a current payroll of $305 million and a projected final payroll of $346 million. That’s stupefying, considering the Mets haven’t handed out a true big-money deal.

So why the inflated payroll? Well, Joel Sherman of the New York Post pointed out the Mets’ five biggest salaries for 2024 and it’s a hangover of world-class proportions.

Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is the highest-paid player on the team at $32 million. One would argue he’s worth the money. He was just named the second-best shortstop in baseball by MLB.com. He’s coming off a Silver Slugger season.

Next? Well, therein lies the problem. It happens to be Justin Verlander, who doesn’t exactly pitch for the Mets anymore. The Mets are shelling $25 million in the Houston Astros’ direction as part of last year’s trade. The Mets knew that was the price to get him off the payroll. Heck, the Mets also owe him $17 million in 2025.

Same goes for Max Scherzer, who is now with the Texas Rangers. The Mets are paying nearly $21 million to the Rangers as part of their agreement.

The Mets will pay more to offset those two salaries than they will to first baseman Pete Alonso ($20.5 million), who just agreed to an arbitration deal, or outfielder Brandon Nimmo ($20.25 million). They round out the Mets’ Top 5 salaries.

Of course, Cohen is good for the money. But it underscores the job Stearns and his new staff have ahead of them — and the resources they have to navigate at the moment.