The official word from Major League Baseball on arbitration eligible players is expected in the coming days. Players are eligible for arbitration after three years of service time. Daniel Murphy, Bobby Parnell and Rob Johnson all fall into this category as first time arbitration eligible players. You are eligible for arbitration for three years prior to becoming a free agent. Fred Lewis and Manny Acosta will go through the arbitration process for the second time, whereas Andres Torres and Mike Pelfrey are in their final year of arbitration. Matt Swartz at MLB Trade Rumors predicts the salaries each player will earn during their arbitration. He predicts the following salaries for the aforementioned arbitration eligible players:

Daniel Murphy - $3 million (up from $512,198 in 2012)

Bobby Parnell - $1.5 million (up from $504,000 in 2012)

Rob Johnson - $600,000 (up from minor league contract)

Fred Lewis - $500,000 (up from minor league contract)

Manny Acosta - $1.1 million (up from $875,000 in 2012)

Andres Torres - $3.2 million (up from $2,700,000 in 2012)

Mike Pelfrey - $5.7 million (up from $5,675,000 in 2012)

A select group of players with between two and three years of service time are also eligible; they are known as “Super Twos.” These players will endure four years of arbitration before they reach their sixth year of MLB service time, at which point they’re eligible for free agency. The expected “Super Twos” from the Mets are Josh Thole and Ike Davis. Matt Swartz predicts the arbitration salaries of these players as well:

Josh Thole - $1.2 million (up from $498,920 in 2012)

Ike Davis - $2.8 million (up from $506,690 in 2012)

Although the Mets have nine players eligible for arbitration, only four are likely to make it to the process. The others are likely to be non-tendered and let go as free agents. The four players expected to be retained by the Mets through arbitration are Murphy, Parnell, Thole, and Davis. The others are merely fringe players or will command much more in arbitration than they are currently worth to the Mets. Once you eliminate the non-tendered players, the Mets are looking at roughly $8.5 million in combined 2013 salaries for the four remaining players.