Which Mets $100 million contracts worked and which didn’t

Max Scherzer became the latest member of the New York Mets franchise to take home a $100 million payday. Not the first to do it, his load of cash will come into his bank account in the shortest amount of time. The $130 million will be spread across only three seasons. As I’m sure you’re well aware, it gives him the highest annual average per year in MLB history.

Before Scherzer, several other $100 million deals have been handed down from management to players. Two others are still alive, too.

With several others now over and enough time to digest the deals which are now a few seasons deep, I thought it was time to look at which ones worked and which didn’t. Only the deals signed between the player and the Mets will be included.

Current Mets $100 million deals still in the works: Francisco Lindor 10 years, $341 million and Jacob deGrom 5 years, $137.5 million

Francisco Lindor’s deal with the Mets doesn’t officially begin until the 2022 season. In 2021, he was still getting paid as an arbitration-eligible player. He still received a handsome $22.3 million payday in what was a greatly disappointing season.

With a full decade left to rebound, the Mets will need this to turn out in their favor.

The other $100 million deal on the roster not belonging to Scherzer is his rotation-mate, Jacob deGrom. Signed to a five-year deal worth $137.5 million, this one is well on its way to becoming possibly the best. In fact, you could even call it a bargain.

deGrom has remained one of the best pitchers in baseball since signing the extension in March of 2019. Only months after winning the Cy Young, he would go on to win his second that same year.

However, the extension didn’t actually begin until the shortened 2020 season. And in 2021, with deGrom getting his highest annual payday at $35.5 million, the ace missed half of the year.

Regardless of this, even if deGrom does opt-out after the 2022 season, I think this one will be a winning contract. It’s just a shame that he couldn’t stay healthy and the team around him was unable to pick up enough slack.

Now that those are out of the way with no end to them yet, we can start looking at the ones already completed.