The Mets agreed to terms with 21 of their pre-arbitration players on Wednesday and with it, doled out the richest contract for a second-year player in MLB history.
Pete Alonso will be making $652,521 in 2020, a 17.5% raise from last year that is uncommon amongst pre-arbitration players.
“First and foremost, I’d like to say thank you to the New York Mets for this gesture,” Alonso said on Wednesday (h/t SNY). “I just feel extremely honored to be a part of this organization. I feel extremely blessed because for me this organization means the world to me. This truly feels like home.”
The Mets are rewarding the 25-year-old for the historic rookie season he put together last season while helping put the organization back on the map.
Alonso set Major League Baseball’s rookie record with 53 home runs in 2019, breaking the mark set two years earlier by Yankees’ star Aaron Judge. By comparison, Judge was paid $622,300 following that 2017 season, per Spotrac.
Alonso’s 120 RBI was also a franchise rookie record, blowing by the 74 set by Darryl Strawberry back in 1984.
Still, the first baseman was taken aback when the figures of his deal came down the line.
“We got a number — I was shocked and thrilled,” Alonso said. “I’m just so happy we came to an agreement because I think the world of this organization. It truly is a blessing.”
With his record-setting campaign firmly in the rear-view mirror, Alonso will be relied upon by the Mets to help them contend for a division title in a stacked National League East.
That will be the case for years to come, too, as he is firmly set as a new cornerstone within the organization and is under team control for the next four years.
Eventually, a long-term contract will have to be hammered out, but that isn’t concerning Alonso — at least for now.
“I just kind of let the agents and the team do their thing for me,” he said. “I was concentrated on just getting ready for the 2020 season. For me, my job is to go out there and be ready for my team to win a championship, so I didn’t really have a part in it and not really too well-versed in the particulars of it.”
