The Mike Pelfrey Contract

I saw this interesting nugget a few days back and simply forgot to post it. As some of you may remember, the Mets drafted Mike Pelfrey with their 9th overall selection in 2005 and then signed him to a four year major league contract worth more than $5.3 million in guaranteed money.

But as the 2009 season comes to close, I wondered what would happen with Pelfrey because his contract expired, but he did not have enough service time to become a free agent or qualify for arbitration.

The answer: in 2010 Pelfrey will actually get a pay cut. As Adam Rubin noted:

"Mike Pelfrey's contract calls for him to make $3 million this season, but because that original deal upon being drafted expires and he falls short of the service time required to qualify for arbitration, that salary would drop to $500,000 in 2010."

I'm sure the Mets feel much more comfortable paying Pelfrey $500,000 next year considering how mediocre he's been so far in 2009.

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