Gooden Avoids Hearing, Agrees to $1.5 Million

Dwight Gooden and the New York Mets, scheduled for a salary arbitration hearing, reached agreement Sunday on a one-year contract worth about $1.5 million.

Gooden, 17-6 with a 2.84 earned run average last season, was seeking $1.8 million in arbitration while the Mets proposed the same $1.32 million he made last season. Gooden won the National League Cy Young Award with a 24-4 record and 1.53 ERA in 1985.

The Mets beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series last fall even though Gooden was ineffective in two Series starts.

Both sides wanted to avoid further publicity with a salary arbitration hearing, which was scheduled for Friday, following Gooden’s off-season fight with police in his his hometown of Tampa, Fla.

Gooden, 22, and three friends were arrested Dec. 13 on a charge of battery of a police officer and resisting arrest. Gooden was also charged with disorderly conduct.

Gooden, facing a possibility of 10 years in prison, pleaded no-contest to two felony charges and was placed on three years’ probation and required to perform 160 hours of community service.