After last winter’s drama that ultimately saw him return to the Mets on a two-year, $54 million deal, Pete Alonso is humming all cylinders in 2025 — and the odometer that is tracking his next payday continues to rise with each passing mile.
The slugging first baseman is doing everything he can to prove to David Stearns and the Mets that he is worthy of the long-term contract that he and his agent, Scott Boras, were revving for last winter.
Stearns and Steve Cohen’s hesitance ultimately did not burn them. Alonso’s market was practically non-existent, and he ultimately agreed to a bridge deal to stay in Queens for at least one more year.
He is making $30 million before opting out, which is already a lock for him to take, considering what he has done for the Mets in the first half of the season.
Had the 30-year-old fled last winter, who knows where the Mets would be right now? Alonso has been their most consistent bat, slashing .280/.376/.532 (.908 OPS) with 21 home runs and 77 RBI, appearing in all of New York’s 97 games.
His current 162-game pace: 35 home runs and 128 RBI, which is going to feature the setting of a new career franchise home run record. With the second half of the season beginning on Friday night at Citi Field, he is just five away from tying Darryl Strawberry’s mark of 252 round-trippers.
This upcoming winter is going to be very different from last offseason. At this rate, Alonso will be coming off one of his best all-around seasons rather than his worst, which featured a .788 OPS and 88 RBI in 162 games (yes, he already has just 11 fewer RBI than all of last year).
His market will be larger, and he will rightfully have the opportunity to explore his options. But even in the uncertainty, he continues to campaign for staying in Queens.
“I mean if it works out, you know, it would be really special [to stay with the Mets,” Alonso said in Atlanta during All-Star week. “But again, there’s a lot of things that happen business-wise and a lot of unpredictable things that happen in free agency.
“This time around, like last year, there’s no guarantee. But I’m happy I stayed. This is a great team, it’s a great group of guys. We’ll see what happens business-wise, nothing’s guaranteed, so we’ll see.”
So, what would it take to keep Alonso in blue and orange for the long haul, and likely the remainder of his career?
Stearns and Cohen will have to give him the long-term $200 million contract that he was initially looking for last winter, which would be a showing of good faith for what he is on pact to do this year — and for what he has done so far as a Met. This is a franchise, after all, that has not boasted many offensive homegrown talents who have stayed healthy or realized their full potential.
If he stays in Queens, Alonso will rewrite the record books and potentially be one of the cornerstones of what could be a golden generation for an organization that has not won a World Series in 39 years and has not made the postseason three years in a row.
This season’s $30 million salary will be the baseline moving forward, and a partially front-loaded contract could provide an attractive olive branch to extend across the table toward Boras. It would also provide less of a hit to the Mets’ books in the latter stages of the contract when the mid-to-late-30s regression ultimately hits.
So, within a hypothetical, say, eight-year, $240 million contract that pays Alonso $35 million in each of his first four seasons — which would draw him nearly level with Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the largest annual contract for a first baseman in baseball — the final half of his contract would carry an average annual value of $25 million, which could have the opportunity to increase if certain incentives are hit.
Large numbers, undoubtedly, which would provide obvious hesitation to dole out to a player on the wrong side of his 30s, but at this rate, the Mets can’t afford to lose one of their glue guys, who also remains on track to be one of their greatest ever.
