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.

The David Wright extension only backfired because of injuries

The Mets signed David Wright to a big eight-year, $138 million deal in November 2012. The timing wasn’t so superb but nobody could have foreseen what lied ahead for the man we came to know as “The Captain.”

Wright was an All-Star in his first year under the new deal, batting .307/.390/.514 with 18 home runs and 58 RBI. The problem was how many games he missed—an ongoing theme for the remainder of his career.

Wright played in only 323 games after the $100 million deal was signed. About two seasons worth of games, it’s impossible to call this deal a success even if it was the right thing to do.

Those final seasons of Wright’s career included 112 games in 2013, 134 in 2014, 38 in 2015, 37 in 2016, 0 in 2017, and 2 farewell appearances in 2018. Still somewhat productive with a .279/.357/.436 slash line, it was hugely disappointing for fans hoping he would help the team win a World Series.

Fortunately, he did at least get healthy enough to play for them in the playoffs. And in one famous at-bat, Wright hit a World Series home run that seemed to signal a possible return to his better days. Sadly, that wouldn’t be the case.

The Carlos Beltran deal might be the best of the $100 million contracts

For seven years and $119 million, Carlos Beltran became a member of the Mets. During those years in Queens, Beltran helped usher in a competitive era of Mets baseball with the high coming in 2006 with the team making it to Game 7 of the NLCS. While he was remembered for striking out to end that game, Beltran’s totals with the team make him the best center fielder in club history.

Beltran would hit .280/.369/.500 in 839 games for the club. He hit 149 home runs with the 2006 season including a franchise-tying-record 41. He would win three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and make five All-Star teams.

The only thing that makes this big deal not unanimously perfect is that Beltran suffered through some big injuries in 2009 and 2010. Even so, we cannot negate all of the production he gave the team when he was able to get on the field.

Adding in one more positive element, the Mets ended up trading him in mid-2011 for Zack Wheeler. This trade might be the only trade deadline move in which the Mets sold and came away as the possible winner in the deal—or at least benefitted.

Beltran’s Mets legacy has some mixed feelings among fans. As that curveball from Adam Wainwright ages further, maybe those who don’t view him favorable will finally come around.

The $100 million Yoenis Cespedes contract took a quick nosedive

After the 2015 run to the World Series, Yoenis Cespedes became a free agent and agreed to return to the Mets. However, his contract had an opt-out which he exercised after a productive 2016 season. Hoping to get even more from the big guy, they signed him to a four-year contract worth $110 million.

Unlike the first season and a half with Cespedes on the Mets, the next few seasons were…well, interesting.

Cespedes missed exactly half of the miserable 2017 season but was productive when on the field. He returned in 2018 for only 38 games before going down with an injury, returning for a single game to hit a home run, and then going back on the injured list.

Foot injuries and a wild boar would highlight Cespedes’ 2018 and 2019—the latter of which he missed entirely. He did return in 2020 for 8 games. After hitting only .161 in his first 34 trips to the plate, he decided to opt-out of the season. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. He had already lost a lot of money from the original $110 million he was owed because of his off-field activities.

Among all of these $100 million contracts, the Cespedes one might be the easiest to forget. At least Wright remained a leader for the organization. Cespedes, under what was meant to be a four-year contract worth $110 million, played in only 127 games from 2017-onward.

Here’s to hoping the Scherzer contract is a lot more like the Beltran deal, less like the one Cespedes got.