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With their addition of Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets made their team much better and significantly increased their 2016 payroll in the process. So let's take a look at the payroll for the Opening Day roster. Players expected to be starters on the team are in bold.
| Player | Salary |
|---|---|
| Yoenis Cespedes | $27,500,000 |
| David Wright | $20,000,000 |
| Curtis Granderson | $16,000,000 |
| Neil Walker* | $10,700,000 |
| Asdrubal Cabrera | $8,250,000 |
| Lucas Duda | $6,725,000 |
| Travis d'Arnaud | $550,000 |
| Michael Conforto | $550,000 |
| Alejandro De Aza | $5,750,000 |
| Ruben Tejada | $3,000,000 |
| Juan Lagares | $2,500,000 |
| Kevin Plawecki | $550,000 |
| Wilmer Flores | $550,000 |
| Bartolo Colon | $7,250,000 |
| Matt Harvey | $4,325,000 |
| Jacob deGrom | $550,000 |
| Noah Syndergaard | $550,000 |
| Steven Matz | $550,000 |
| Sean Gilmartin | $550,000 |
| Jeurys Familia* | $3,300,000 |
| Jerry Blevins | $4,000,000 |
| Hansel Robles | $550,000 |
| Erik Goeddel | $550,000 |
| Antonio Bastardo | $5,375,000 |
| Addison Reed | $5,300,000 |
| Jenrry Mejia* | $980,000 |
| Josh Edgin | $625,000 |
| Zack Wheeler | $550,000 |
| TOTAL | $137,630,000 |
We're going with guaranteed salaries for players on the roster above. We don't know yet what's going to happen with Carlos Torres, who agreed to a $1 million salary to avoid arbitration but was designated for assignment to make room for Antonio Bastardo. So feel free to add that to the total above if you'd like. Alejandro De Aza could make more based on playing time, but with the addition of Cespedes, it's obviously less likely that he will eclipse those benchmarks. And the $27.5 million included for Cespedes would be his guaranteed salary if he opts out after this season.
As for the asterisks, Walker and Familia haven't settled with the Mets yet, and the numbers included above are the estimates from MLB Trade Rumors. Mejia's salary is prorated for the portion of the season he'll be eligible to play, based on Chris Walendin's estimate.
That leaves the Mets with a payroll of approximately $138 million payroll. That's as high as the payroll has been since 2011, per Cot's Contracts, and a significant increase from the seasons since then, which came in at $94 million, $93 million, $85 million, and $101 million, respectively.