Just one New York Mets player received pre-arbitration bonuses based on their play for the 2023 season, and it turned out to be a rookie that made a big breakthrough.
Francisco Álvarez collected $350,284 in bonus money for his first Major League season, the league announced on Monday.
Álvarez played in just five games in 2022 but made his way to the Mets full-time in 2023 after a leg injury to Omar Nevarez and he played in 123 games. He only batted .209 for the season, but he hit 25 home runs and drove in 63 runs.
His call-up came after a hot start at Triple-A Syracuse in which he hit two home runs in his first 16 at-bats and he had an OPS of better than 1.000.
While with the Mets, Álvarez became the 12th player in MLB history with at least 12 home runs in the first 46 career games under the age of 22.
The Mets signed him as an international free agent in 2018 out of Venezuela.
Payments from a $50 million pool went to 101 players who didn’t have the service time for salary arbitration for 2022, which was two years, 228 days.
Players can receive bonus money for at least one award per season, with the rest of the money dispersed based on a WAR formula.
Those awards include $2.5 million for winning a MVP or Cy Young Award; $1.75 million for second in the voting; $1.5 million for third; $1 million for fourth, fifth or selection to the all-MLB first team; $750,000 for Rookie of the Year; and $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or all-MLB second team.
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