The Major League Baseball offseason is not even two weeks old yet, and industry chatter is doing everything it possibly can to jettison Pete Alonso from the New York Mets this offseason.
The New York Post is taking Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns’ comments about making run prevention a priority this winter as a potential sign that they’ll move on from the defensively below-average slugger. Sports Illustrated went as far as to speculate, under the guise of sourced reporting from a National League scout, that the Mets are going to let Alonso walk in free agency in hopes of shifting the clubhouse culture.
SNY’s Andy Martino, however, said it best: It’s too early to make any sort of legitimate call on where the Mets’ all-time home-run king will be playing baseball in 2026. He did, however, add that his “hunch” was that Stearns and owner Steve Cohen “would be happy to welcome Alonso back in 2026, albeit with a significant increase in at-bats at designated hitter.”
So, what do we actually know?
The mutual interest in working out a multi-year deal still very much remains between Stearns and Alonso. Even after the soon-to-be-31-year-old announced minutes after the final game of the regular season that he would be opting out of the second and final year of his bridge contract, he continued to profess his adoration for being a Met.
“I’ve grown up in this organization,” Alonso, a Mets draft pick and now the franchise’s greatest slugger ever, said. “What I’ve done here, I’m really proud of the mark I’ve left. I want to be the best teammate and the best player I can possibly be. Not just for the people here, but for the franchise and the fans. It’d be great, but we’ll see what happens.”
This came after he threw the ball in Stearns and Cohen’s proverbial court back in August, saying “Steve and David, they gotta come through,” when asked about the future of his franchise home-run record and how many more round-trippers he’ll hit in blue and orange.
Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, are reportedly looking for a seven-year contract once again. The prospects of that happening appear to be slim, though they are better than last winter, considering he’s coming off a much better season (38 home runs, 126 RBI, .871 OPS). That means a more crowded market to put some added pressure on the Mets.
A somewhat barren list of potential suitors last offseason ultimately paved the way for Alonso to return to Queens on that two-year, $54 million deal that featured the player option. It was clear that Stearns had little interest in doling out a six or seven-year deal, and that sentiment would be understandably unchanged considering the Polar Bear is a year older and a year slower, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
One would then have to gauge Stearns’ appetite for doling out a long-term, big-money deal, then, for a first baseman that will likely transition to a full-time DH in a few years.
Regardless, the head of the Mets’ front office has also remained steadfast in his desire to keep Alonso. Elite sluggers can’t be picked up willy-nilly, and one of this caliber is something that has evaded this franchise for the first 57 years of their existence.
“Pete is a great Met,” Stearns said a day after his team’s season ended in bitter disappointment in late September. “He had a fantastic year. I said this last year, and it worked out: I’d love to have Pete back. We’ll see where the offseason goes.”
