When Pete Alonso saved the Mets season last October with a Wild Card Series-clinching home run against the Milwaukee Brewers, he forever endeared himself as a hero among the Flushing faithful.
That magical moment in Milwaukee erased a season of frustration for Alonso and Mets fans, who felt that their slugging first baseman was trending downward in his final year before hitting free agency. It was his least productive season since 2021, as he hit 34 home runs (12 fewer than 2023), drove in 88 RBI (30 fewer than 2023) and hit just .240 with sub-.800 OPS while striking out 172 times.
Still, Alonso’s postseason heroics changed the attitude among Mets fans who want the homegrown slugger to stay. Less than a month before pitchers and catchers report for spring training at Port St. Lucie, FL, it remains unclear whether Alonso will join them as a Met this season.
The Mets and Alonso’s superagent, Scott Boras, have talked plenty during this offseason and have seemingly hit an impasse even as the market for Alonso among the 29 other teams has virtually dried up. Many Mets fans once frustrated with Alonso’s unproductive at-bats are now frustrated that a deal hasn’t been made—and they are letting Mets owner Steve Cohen and President of Baseball Operations David Stearns hear it.
At the Amazin’ Day celebration at Citi Field on Sunday, fans chanted, “We want Pete!” and even booed Stearns over the impasse when he was asked why a deal had not yet been done.
“We all love Pete and we’ve said that many times. And I think as we’ve gone through this process, we’ve continued to express that,” Stearns said. “We also understand that this is a business, and Pete, as a free agent, deserves the right and has the right and earned the privilege really to see what’s out there.”
That fans would be frustrated over the Alonso impasse is one thing; that fans would boo Stearns and Cohen — on the heels of an incredible 2024 run and signing superstar Juan Soto this offseason to the richest contract in baseball history — is just inexcusable and sad.
Still, the fans have every right to be angry about this episode — and if they’re looking for scapegoats, they can look no further than Boras and Alonso.
Alonso rebuffed last year a seven-year contract extension worth $158 million. He bet on himself ahead of the 2024 season to cash in on his walk year — and unfortunately for him, he had one of the worst seasons in his career.
Heading into his age 31 year, the Mets are right to wonder whether Alonso’s best days are behind him, and made him an offer reflective of that skepticism. They do not want to give him a long-term contract, even though Boras seems to demand that Alonso get a deal similar to the six-year, $162 million contract the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman in 2022.
Yet to date, no team in MLB has hinted at giving Alonso anything close to the Freeman deal.
The latest Mets offer was a three-year deal believed to be $70 million, with several opt-outs that Alonso could exercise next year or the year after if he wanted to pursue a better deal off a better year.
This, too, was rejected by Boras and Alonso — who now seems destined to the same fate other Boras clients like JD Martinez and Jordan Montgomery suffered last season: Holding out for a last-minute deal in the middle of spring training to the highest bidder, for a fraction of what they had been seeking.
By all rights, Alonso should be a Met in 2025. He slots perfectly into the lineup, which would be an offensive force with the likes of Soto, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos. Together, they have a chance to take what they did in 2024 several steps further, and they are closer to a world championship now than they have been since Alonso arrived in 2019.
It would be utterly foolish for Alonso to walk away from the Mets now. Why take a rumored deal with a last-place team like the Los Angeles Angels when you can roll the dice on the Mets for at least one more year — and potentially regain your form, win a World Series ring, and earn the nine-figure contract you want next offseason?
Alonso has received enough bad advice from Boras. It’s time for him to make things right with the Mets.
