What Did Arbitration Ever Do To Be Avoided So Often? Applesauce: Four Mets Avoid Arbitration, Judge Makes Less Than Admirable Ruling, WFAN to TRAID Hagin For Lewin?

Good morning, Mets fans! With Wikipedia protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act all day today, you're probably saying to yourself "what the heck am I supposed to read to waste time on the internet today?!" I understand your pain. Don't worry, we will all get through this together! In any case, you can start your day off by reading this Applesauce, which I feel confident in saying that compared to all of the other Applesauce posts I've written, this is certainly one of them. Cheers!

Meet the Mets

Tuesday was the deadline for teams and players to exchange figures for salary arbitration and as a result, there were plenty of announcements regarding players who avoided the big A. The Mets followed suit, as all four of their arbitration eligible players agreed to one year contracts. Mike Pelfrey received $5.68 million, Ramon Ramirez received $2.67 million, Andres Torres received $2.7 million and Manny Acosta received $875,000, making sure that the last Met to stand in front of the arbitrator was Oliver Perez in 2008. Go to hell, arbitration! Take that for forcing me to write that ghastly name.

It looks as if the Mets will be going to trial in mid-March, as Judge Jed Rakoff denied a motion by Irving Picard to have Rakoff's initial decision in the case immediately appealed. This means that the Mets, for now at least, could only lose a maximum of $386 million at trial, which begins March 19th. Of course, Picard could appeal this decision again after the trial is completed, potentially allowing him access to the $1 billion ruling he'd been seeking.

Guess what, everybody -- we're slowly creeping up on the start of spring training! We're about a month out now, so it's still a bit too early for Mets' spring previews. Instead, Patrick Flood gives you his "Pre-Preseason-Preview-View", which is a preview of what the roster would look like today, assuming no other moves are made. No, that title's not confusing at all.

Speaking of spring training, the city of Port St. Lucie and the Mets are in the process of renovating the right field stands at Digital Domain Park. The upgrades, which include the addition of actual stadium seats down the right field line, have gone slowly over the offseason but are coming along and should be ready for camp next month. The Mets agreed to stay in St. Lucie until 2023 a few months back, although the deal has a provision which allows them to break the contract should one of the four other east coast Florida teams moves out of the area.

Finally, Neil Best of Sportswatch reported that former Texas Rangers broadcaster Josh Lewin is in the lead to team up with Howie Rose and replace Wayne Hagin on WFAN. Here's a Josh Hamilton walk off home run, as announced by Lewin.

Around the Majors

Some really bad news for the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, as C/DH Victor Martinez tore his ACL during a workout and could miss the entire season. AA's own Eno Sarris took a look at how the Tigers can replace Martinez' offensive production. The Red Sox also got some injury news of their own, as expensive OF Carl Crawford had surgery on his wrist and may end up missing Opening Day. And to think, Mets fans think we have it bad with Jason Bay!

There was plenty of arbitration news made on Tuesday, as a slew of players agreed to new deals. One of the most interesting signings was Cole Hamels receiving a hefty $15 million in his final arbitration season. They're going to have some interesting decisions next offseason with so much money already on the books, to go along with Hamels and Shane Victorino hitting free agency and looking for expensive long term deals.

The Giants made some news in arbitration as well. They re-signed Pablo Sandoval to a 3 year extension, gave Melky Cabrera $6 million to play poor defense and hit near league average offensively but the biggest nugget was the record $17 million that the Giants offered to Tim Lincecum in arbitration. Lincecum, meanwhile, asked the Giants for $21.5 million.

The Rangers have until tonight to agree to a deal with Yu Darvish and it sounds as if Alexi Ogando would be the pitcher to move to the bullpen, should the two sides come to a deal (and they seem to be confident that they will).

To close things out this morning, NotGraphs brings you "Great Moments in Jheri Curls: Pascual Perez". Looks like Mr. Perez went a little heavy on the Soul-Glo that day.