With the winter conferences lower than every week away, the Mets have a obtrusive space of want. No it’s not beginning pitching, however that’s a giant one on the listing too.
It’s run manufacturing. With out Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso, it’s not clear the place that run manufacturing goes to come back from. One of the simplest ways to resolve this downside is to re-sign Alonso.
The Mets aren’t going to have the ability to exchange his manufacturing within the lineup simply. Alonso frequently hits 30-40 house runs and drives in additional than 100. His 141 wRC+ in 2025 tied for the second-highest output of his profession, displaying that he’s again on observe after a number of down seasons on the plate.
Since he debuted in 2019, he’s hit 264 house runs, the most-ever by a participant in a Mets uniform, and greater than each different participant in baseball in that point span besides for 2: Aaron Decide and Kyle Schwarber.
Mark Vientos and Jeff McNeil are anticipated to take over at first base within the occasion Alonso indicators elsewhere. Even when Vientos can shake off 2025 and hit 27 house runs once more, and even when McNeil can capitalize on the facility he tapped into final season, they aren’t two halves that can make a complete. President of baseball operations David Stearns is adept at strengthening rosters across the margins, however a handful of marginal upgrades aren’t going to come back near changing Alonso as a participant or an individual.
The main focus of the offseason is on run prevention and protection, which is likely one of the explanation why the Mets haven’t been aggressive in relation to re-signing the five-time All-Star first baseman. Alonso, who will probably be 31 on Sunday, has by no means been a glove-first participant, however his protection at first base has all the time been ok that the Mets by no means felt the necessity to transfer him off of the place, or to present him a major variety of DH at-bats to maintain him within the lineup.
He’s dependable, having made 162 begins in 2024 and enjoying in all 162 video games in 2025. Alonso has by no means performed fewer than 152 video games in a full season.
If Alonso is keen to play extra DH, as his agent, Scott Boras, indicated final month on the MLB common supervisor conferences in Las Vegas, then the Mets might get inventive at first base. They may signal third baseman Alex Bregman, lastly filling a spot that has been taking over water since David Wright’s again began giving him issues a decade in the past. Or, they might signal Cody Bellinger to have him break up time at first base and middle subject. Isaac Paredes or the sure-handed Christian Walker might be obtainable by trades.
Nevertheless, Walker is 35 and nonetheless has two years left on his contract with the Astros, and he’s coming off of a down season offensively. Paredes doesn’t have the identical pop as Alonso, and the Mets don’t seem to have curiosity in Bregman, Bellinger or Schwarber.
Then, there’s the difficulty of Alonso’s immense recognition. Followers additionally aren’t going to come back to Citi Discipline to look at somebody like Walker, and even Bellinger. They aren’t going to be shopping for Marcus Semien jerseys, and so they received’t be enticed to take a seat in frigid April climate to look at a Jared Younger/Rhys Hoskins platoon at first base. It is a metropolis pushed by stars.
The Mets have already dealt away a fan-favorite in Nimmo and Edwin Diaz stays a free agent. The longtime faces followers have grown to understand are slowly leaving Flushing, identical to their heroes have carried out all through the franchise’s turbulent historical past. This period was imagined to be completely different.
Francisco Lindor and his spouse, Katia, have made large inroads with the group. Juan Soto was tremendously common earlier than coming to the Mets, and remained so after signing a 15-year contract a yr in the past. The 2 will proceed to take pleasure in well-deserved fan assist and have the entire media alternatives they need at their disposal being in New York.
However this isn’t about Lindor and Soto, except you’re speaking about lineup safety for them. And never for nothing, that safety positive is missing in the intervening time.
That is a couple of participant who’s extraordinarily common with the fanbase and related to them as nicely, and he offers the Mets an opportunity to win. There will probably be harsh backlash if the Mets let Alonso stroll, particularly if the membership declines to make a aggressive supply. Mets followers view Alonso as one in every of them — somebody who loves the crew and the group as a lot as they do, and somebody who desperately desires to see the crew win a World Sequence.
They nonetheless view proprietor Steve Cohen in that regard. They used to view Stearns like that as nicely, however after final season, that’s not the case anymore. Stearns isn’t going to issue what the followers need into his decision-making, and has already proven that he has no use for sentimentality by buying and selling Nimmo. Giving Alonso a long-term contract, nonetheless, can be good for baseball and a boon for enterprise.
There is no such thing as a slam-dunk alternative for Alonso. One of the best transfer they will make to create runs and maintain followers coming to the ballpark subsequent season and past is to re-sign the Polar Bear.
