Phil Bickford is the one Met who went to arbitration. And he won an extra $85,000.
Mets reliever Phil Bickford during a spring training workout last month. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — On Jan. 11, the date for players and teams to submit salary arbitration numbers, the Mets avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $20.5 million contract with Pete Alonso.
The Mets also agreed to one-year deals on that date with five of their other six arbitration-eligible players.
One player, however, did not reach an agreement: reliever Phil Bickford, who filed for a salary of $900,000. The Mets countered at $815,000.
It was on.
Bickford, a stringy-haired, 28-year-old righthanded reliever with a 4.43 career ERA, felt he was asking for what he was worth. Even though the difference was $85,000 in a sport in which the average salary in 2023 was $4.9 million, Bickford wasn’t afraid of taking the Mets to an arbitration hearing.
And he won.
Bickford’s salary for 2024 — assuming he makes the club out of spring training — will be $900,000.
“I was just comfortable moving forward and just listened to my agent and the lawyer that he hired,” Bickford told Newsday last week.
Bickford is represented by agent RJ Hernandez of ET Sports and had his case argued before a three-person panel by Rex Gary.
“Just did my best to enjoy the process and trust in what they were saying,” Bickford said. “The [Players Association] got involved as well and was on our side, so I just did my best to enjoy it.”
Enjoy it? Do you know how arbitration hearings work in baseball?
The team has to say negative things about the player, or at least the player’s worth in the current salary structure of the game. The player’s representatives try to pump up their client’s worth.
“I was there,” Bickford said. “It's honestly pretty self-explanatory. When it comes to what happens during the hearing, I'm sure you can put it all together really quick.”
Did Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns — who did not attend the hearing — and his underlings “enjoy” the process?
“No. No,” Stearns told Newsday last week. “I don't think as a front office, as an organization, you desire to go to arbitration.”
There were 15 arbitration hearings this year, with players winning nine. The asks went from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $19.9 million (he won) all the way down to Bickford, who was the only player to ask for less than $1 million and go to a hearing.
The Mets’ policy, Stearns said, is that they will not negotiate on a one-year deal once numbers are exchanged, so the hearing was scheduled. The arbitration panel is not allowed to split the difference. Just like in a baseball game, at the end there is a winner and a loser.
Bickford, who the Mets picked up from the Dodgers in a trade-deadline deal last year and went 3-2 with a 4.62 ERA and one save in 25 appearances, was the winner. But did he worry that victory would cause hard feelings since it came against his employer?
“I mean, yeah, like, naturally it came to my thought process a little bit,” he said. “And then I just talked to my agent, RJ, about it and he kind of like calmed down those thoughts and made me realize that the whole time it just felt like we were doing the right things in the sense of what it means to be an MLB player. You’ve got to be comfortable doing it for yourself, honestly. But at the same time, though, I was telling myself that it's bigger than us.”
Stearns, asked if he was surprised Bickford was the player who took the Mets to a hearing, said: “I've learned to stop predicting how the arbitration process was going to play out. This is a strange process for a number of reasons. So nothing in arbitration really surprises me.”
Bickford is trying to win a spot in the Mets’ bullpen. After throwing a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts on Sunday against Miami, he has a 7.36 ERA in four outings.
“Doing everything I can to just be ready to rock and roll for the season and all of that,” Bickford said. “I've been enjoying it. There's a lot of cool stuff going on here. It's a lot of fun playing here. And it just makes you want to help the team win that much more.”
At any price.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
