Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports points out that the Mets could have $33.5 million dollars off their payroll this year with a number of players declaring free agency and potentially another $37.3 next year.

Partial list of 2007 free agents

LHP Tom Glavine $10.5 million last season
C Paul LoDuca $6.25 million
2B Luis Castillo $5.75 million, pro-rated
2B Jose Valentin $3.8 million
RF Shawn Green $3.7 million (Mets’ contribution)
RHP Jorge Sosa $1.25 million
LHP Dave Williams $1.25 million
RHP Aaron Sele $1 million

Partial list of 2008 free agents

1B Carlos Delgado $16 million next season
RHP Pedro Martinez $11 million
RHP Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez $6.5 million
RHP Guillermo Mota $3.8 million

Rosenthal notes, the Mets obviously would need to pay for replacements for these players but they have several young, cheap in-house options such as Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey for the rotation along with Carlos Gomez and Lastings Milledge available for the outfield.

In addition to these contracts coming off the books, the Mets will earn $20 million a year from Citibank for naming rights in 2008 along with approximately $30 million from shared MLB revenues.

This does not even factor in SNY revenue, the flood of revenues the Mets will be earning with the new ballpark, and many other cash streams. All things considered, the Mets appear to be in a very good financial position to throw their weight around when it comes to going after free agents in 2007 and beyond.

How aggressive they plan to be with this wealth remains to be seen.