After playing well in 60 games for the New York Mets in 2016, infielder Jose Reyes will be back with the team next season.
Per Jon Heyman of TodaysKnuckleball.com and James Wagner of the New York Times, the Mets exercised Reyes’ 2017 contract option that pays him the league minimum.
Major League Baseball hasn’t announced the official minimum salary for next season. It has been $507,500 each of the previous two seasons, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).
While Reyes will not earn much money from the Mets, he’s still owed $22 million in 2017 from the Colorado Rockies, who released the former All-Star in June after he served a 51-game suspension for violating MLB‘s domestic violence policy.
Reyes was arrested and charged with abuse of a family or household member last October in Maui, Hawaii, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com.
The Mets signed Reyes at the end of June. He made his season debut on July 5 and hit .267/.326/.443 with 25 extra-base hits in 255 at-bats.
Facing some key roster decisions this offseason—most notably if they can re-sign Yoenis Cespedes, assuming he opts out of his contract, which ESPN’s Adam Rubin noted is expected to happen no later than Saturday—keeping talent at an affordable salary is essential for the Mets.
Reyes is no longer the dynamic talent he was during his prime years, but he played well after sitting out the first half of the 2016 season and is clearly comfortable in the New York market to be worth the small financial investment the team has in him.
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