Since taking over as the Mets‘ president of baseball operations, David Stearns has been candid about the team’s stance on Pete Alonso.
To sum it up…
The Mets are “invested” in keeping Alonso, and they understand the value he brings as a homegrown Met and proven star in New York.
At the same time, serious talks about an extension never accelerated. And Stearns said in spring training that the first baseman was likely headed to free agency after the season.
“That’s probably the most likely outcome,” Stearns told reporters. “Look, when you have a really talented player, who’s really good, who’s entering his final year of club control, who happens to be represented by Scott Boras, these things generally end up into free agency and we understand that.”
Now, while outside buzz again continues to grow about the Mets possibly trading Alonso — which makes zero sense right now and will make zero sense around the deadline if the team is in contention — the main focus is on what will happen after the season.
To that end, Alonso and Boras recently spoke with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic about what the future could hold.
After a relatively tame offseason in 2023-24 — especially in comparison to ones the Mets had in the first few years of owner Steve Cohen‘s tenure — the club is expected to be heavily involved when it comes to the biggest names on the market this offseason.
Those names include Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes, who are both Boras clients.
And when Rosenthal asked Alonso if one or both of those players winding up in Queens could impact his future there, Alonso wasn’t bothered.
“I’m not particularly thinking about that right now,” he told The Athletic. “I love the city I play in. I consider myself a New Yorker. I have a great relationship with guys on the team obviously. And I think I have a great relationship with people in the front office and Steve as well.
“We’ll see what happens this winter. It’s a big question mark. For me, right now, I’m just focusing on doing what I can to help us win every day.”
Alonso also said he felt Boras did a “great job” this past offseason, despite the fact that many believed Boras overplayed his hand when it came to a bunch of his biggest clients, with Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and Cody Bellinger all agreeing to deals that were far less than initially expected. After signing a one-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that contains an opt-out, Montgomery left Boras for a new agency in April.
“Guys did what is best for their families or what they think is best,” Alonso said. “Who am I to judge?”
With Alonso’s free agency looming, Boras has been speaking for months about why he doesn’t feel the contracts recently given to Freddie Freeman and Paul Goldschmidt are “relevant” to the Alonso situation.
And he echoed those thoughts again to The Athletic.
“The revenue system of the game has dramatically changed over the last few years,” Boras said. “I don’t think the (Freeman and Goldschmidt) contracts are really relevant to anything that has to do with what’s going to happen in the future, particularly with Pete Alonso.”
Alonso also weighed in on first basemen getting less recently than they had in the past.
We’ll see where we are at the end of the year,” Alonso told The Athletic. “Having a good year can definitely help that. We’ll see. We don’t know. That’s the mystery about it. Hopefully it does (reverse). Again, I’ve got to play. I’ve got to perform. I’ve got to help the team win.”
While Boras has spent lots of time shooting down the notion that the Freeman and Goldschmidt deals should be a barometer for what Alonso gets, it’s hard to envision interested teams agreeing with him.
Freeman, who has an MVP and Gold Glove to his name and is a career .301/.389/.513 hitter, inked his six-year, $162 million extension with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022 — ahead of his age-32 season.
Alonso, who has more power potential than Freeman but isn’t the all-around hitter he is, will be entering his age-30 season in 2025.
Whether that season (and beyond) is played with the Mets or elsewhere remains to be seen.
Source Agencies
