NEW YORK -- Salary arbitration, a process the Mets regularly try to avoid -- though not at all costs, obviously -- remained on the club's horizon Tuesday after two arbitration-eligible players agreed to one-year contracts. Outfielders Ryan Church and Angel Pagan agreed to respective contracts worth $2.8 million and $575,000, leaving pitchers John Maine and Pedro Feliciano as the only unsigned arbitration-eligible players on the Mets' roster on the day players and club exchanged figures for possible hearings.

Maine is seeking an increase of $2.55 million, a figure that exceeds what the Mets have proposed. His figure is $3 million; theirs is $2.2 million. He earned $450,000 last year during a season that was ended prematurely by a right shoulder injury that has been surgically repaired. Maine produced a 10-8 record and a 4.18 ERA in 25 starts.

His 2008 salary was the result of the Mets renewing his contract; i.e., the club determined the figure during Spring Training after negotiations did not produce an agreement.

Feliciano, who earned $1.04 million last season, submitted a proposal for $1.95 million, $600,000 more than the club's figure. He led the league in appearances, 86, pitching 53 1/3 innings. He had a 3-4 record, two saves and a 4.05 ERA.

The Mets lost in arbitration to Oliver Perez last year. His was the first Mets' case to go to a hearing since 1992. Now the club is trying to re-sign Perez as a free agent and fill the last void in its rotation.

Eligible for arbitration for the first time, Church agreed to an increase of $800,000. Pagan agreed to a raise of $173,500. He became eligible for arbitration even though his Major League service is less than the required three years. A special provision in the collective bargaining agreement -- it was part of the settlement of the 1990 lockout -- affords arbitration rights to unsigned players whose service is among the upper 17 percent of all players with two to three years service. Pagan's service through the end of last season was two years, 144 days. A season of service is 172 days.

Both outfielders missed significant periods of the 2008 season because of injury. Church, the regular right fielder when the season began, played in merely 48 of the 119 Mets game that followed his suffering a concussion May 20. Pagan, a reserve who played more than anticipated in the season's first weeks, injured his left shoulder -- a torn labrum -- in Los Angeles on May 7 and played in only two subsequent games.