Mets, Lucas Duda agree to $6.7 million contract for 2016

The New York Mets and first baseman Lucas Duda have agreed to a one-year, $6.725 million contract, according to Jon Heyman. In doing so, the team and player have avoided going to an arbitration hearing. The salary comes in almost exactly at what was projected by MLB Trade Rumors early in the offseason.

Since the Mets chose to trade Ike Davis early in the 2014 season, Duda has been a very good hitter. He went on to hit 30 home runs that season and hit 27 more in 2015. With 57 home runs in total over the past two seasons, Duda is tied—with Yoenis Cespedes—for the 15th-highest total in Major League Baseball. He hit .244/.352/.486 with a 133 wRC+ in 554 plate appearances in 2015. And perhaps most importantly, he became the star of Curtis Granderson's outstanding wefollowlucasduda account on Instagram.

This was Duda's third year of arbitration eligibility, but he has one more year of arbitration-eligibility in 2017. He earned $4.2 million last season.