Mets didn’t get “bang for their buck” from these three in 2019

In 2019, these three men suited up for the New York Mets and didn’t give the team close to what they were getting paid.

Once or twice a year I’ll look at Spotrac’s Value Rankings. The site which focuses on the financial part of sports has a mathematical formula to determine which players give teams the most bang for their buck. In other words, it’s an easy way to measure which members of the New York Mets are outperforming their contracts and which are not meeting expectations.

After the end of the 2019 season, I checked back to see where some of the underperformers on the Mets finished.

As anyone would guess, Robinson Cano and his large contract put him near the bottom. In order to provide the Mets with $24 million worth of production, he would have needed to be in the MVP race.

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Based on Spotrac’s formula, Cano is still not the last productive position player per dollar in the league or on the Mets. An old friend of ours, Keon Broxton, ranks slightly below Cano. In over 60 games with three different teams this season, Broxton has been atrocious. At a season salary of $571,765, it wouldn’t take much to play up to his deal. Somehow, Broxton went well below these minimal standards.

Even worse than Broxton, however, we find Juan Lagares. His poor season has him in the bottom five in the league with some much older and far more expensive players rating worse.

To add some insult to injury, this accounts for Lagares’ average annual salary of $4.7 million and not the $9 million he actually did take home this year. If this formula took specific yearly numbers, Lagares might be a challenger for the last spot. For now, it belongs to Chris Davis possibly forever and always.

Keep in mind, these numbers don’t include everyone who has had a major league at-bat this season. It’s limited to only 257 names with Cano at 251, Broxton at 253, and Lagares at 254. Nevertheless, it’s disappointing to see three members of this year’s ball club so low on those who qualified.

Swinging things around to the positive, the Mets did get great value out of guys like Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Michael Conforto. Jacob deGrom has also lived up to his contract although this formula has him almost two dozen spots down on the list.

Players making less money have a greater advantage on this list. This is precisely why Jeurys Familia has been the second least valuable per dollar pitcher this year and Edwin Diaz is significantly better despite the two having equally as poor seasons.

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Obviously, an honorable mention goes out to Jed Lowrie and Yoenis Cespedes who combined brought nothing to the ball club this year and still earned a paycheck. If you ever have a chance to join a union like the one MLB players have, do not hesitate.