QUEENS, NY — The Pete Alonso free agency saga is officially underway with the New York Mets’ season ending in the NLCS and in his initial look-ahead to this winter, president of baseball operations David Stearns made it clear that he wants the slugging first baseman to remain in Queens for the long haul.
“He’s a great Met,” Stearns began in his end-of-season availability at Citi Field on Wednesday afternoon. “I hope we have him back. We both understand that this is a process and everyone has their own interests.”
It could very well boil down to the interests of Alonso and his representation, headed by super-agent Scott Boras. Last season, they turned down a seven-year, $158 million offer from the Mets before the trade deadline before reports came out indicating that they were looking for a $200 million deal.
Alonso’s 2024 regular season did not help out those prospects, even though he will be the second-biggest free agent non-pitcher on the open market behind Juan Soto. He set full-season career lows in home runs (34) and OPS (.788), but fueled the Mets’ magical run in the postseason by hitting four home runs — most notably the game-winning three-run shot in the top of the ninth in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Pete deserves to go out in the free-agent market and see what’s out there,” Stearns began. “And then ultimately make the best choice for him and his family.”
Despite the down year, Alonso has been one of Major League Baseball’s elite sluggers since making his debut in 2019, when he set a rookie record with 53 home runs. Only Aaron Judge of the Yankees has hit more home runs than Alonso’s 226 since his debut, which already ranks third-most in Mets franchise history.
A long-term contract would potentially give the Mets something they have never had: A homegrown offensive slugging product that stayed healthy and played the entirety of his career in Queens. But there are obvious pitfalls to this, as well. Alonso will be 31 by the start of the 2025 season and questions about how many top-tier slugging seasons he has left in the tank will naturally arise.
“I think all of that is important,” Stearns said in evaluating Alonso’s next potential contract. “Who Pete is as a person is important. What he means to this franchise is important. Who he is as a player is also important, and what he contributes on the field. There’s no magic formula to this. There’s no equation that spits out what all that is for us. And so there’s judgment involved, there’s evaluating the market involved, and we’ll see how this process goes throughout the offseason.”
Stearns went on to describe Alonso as “absolutely a foundational piece for this organization,” and considering the first bricks of a sustainable contender were laid this season in their run to the NLCS, there is still the promise of something bigger being built by keeping the slugging first baseman in blue and orange.
“My job and our job is to put teams together that are going to win going forward,” Stearns said. “We’ll continue to evaluate that not only with Pete but for the entirety of the player landscape and the entirety of our team. We’ll do our best to put a team together that allows us to compete next year and for teams to come.”
