For the second 12 months in a row, Pete Alonso is poised without cost company.
And for the second 12 months in a row, the fan-favorite first baseman’s future with the Mets was a speaking level throughout David Stearns’ end-of-season press convention.
Stearns, the Mets’ president of baseball operations, addressed the media at Citi Area on Monday, a day after Alonso stated he deliberate to decide out of his contract this winter.
“Pete is a great Met,” Stearns stated. “He had a fantastic year. I said this last year and it worked out: I’d love to have Pete back, and we’ll see how the offseason goes.”
Alonso re-signed with the Mets in February on a two-year, $54 million contract, with the second season being a participant possibility for $24 million.
The 30-year-old slugger then delivered among the finest seasons of his profession, hitting .272 with 38 house runs, a team-high 126 RBI and an .871 OPS in 162 video games.
In August, Alonso turned the Mets’ all-time house run chief.
“Every single day, it’s just been a pleasure coming to work and putting on the orange and blue,” Alonso stated Sunday after the Mets completed an 83-79 season and missed the playoffs. “I’ve really appreciated [the Mets] and been nothing but full of gratitude every single day. So I mean, yeah, nothing is guaranteed, but we’ll see what happens.”
Complicating Alonso’s scenario is that MLB groups have turn out to be increasingly more reluctant to signal power-hitting first basemen of their 30s to long-term contracts.
Stearns stated Monday that the Mets’ group protection wasn’t adequate this 12 months and that the group would “have to be open-minded on our position-player grouping so that we can improve our run prevention.”
Requested if he sees Alonso as a primary baseman or as extra of a delegated hitter, Stearns stated, “I think how the exact roster construction hypothetically fills out, we’ll deal with that as we get into the offseason.”
Final offseason, Mets proprietor Steve Cohen stated the Alonso contract negotiations have been more durable than these for Juan Soto, whom he signed to a 15-year, $765 million contract. Alonso and Soto are each represented by agent Scott Boras.
On Monday, Stearns was requested whether or not having gone via final 12 months’s negotiations with Alonso may assist this 12 months’s.
“I don’t think I can sit here and speculate what’s gonna happen with [the] Pete Alonso negotiation this time,” Stearns stated.
