Chants of “We want Pete” began up amongst Mets followers Saturday because the workforce’s key resolution makers sat down for a panel at Citi Subject.
The chants grew louder about 20 minutes later when Pete Alonso’s title was talked about.
However the chants stopped instantly when Mets proprietor Steve Cohen candidly expressed his frustrations with how the free-agent negotiations with Alonso’s camp have transpired.
“This has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation,” Cohen mentioned on the Mets’ Amazin’ Day fan competition.
“[Juan] Soto was tough. This is worse. … We made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetrical against us, and I feel strongly about it.”
Alonso, who’s represented by agent Scott Boras, stays at an deadlock with the Mets, with whom he’s spent his first six MLB seasons.
His 226 house runs rank third in workforce historical past, however the first baseman is coming off of a 2024 season through which his 34 homers, 88 RBI and .788 OPS marked profession lows, not together with the COVID-shortened 2020 marketing campaign.
The Mets appeared to start pivoting this month, signing outfielder Jesse Winker to a one-year, $8 million contract and reliever A.J. Minter to a two-year, $22 million deal. Earlier within the offseason, the Mets signed celebrity slugger Juan Soto to a record-setting 15-year, $765 million pact.
“I will never say, ‘No.’ There’s always the possibility, but the reality is we’re moving forward and we continue to bring in players,” Cohen mentioned of Alonso.
“As we continue to bring in players, the reality is it becomes harder to fit Pete into what is a very expensive group of players that we already have. That’s where we are, and I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us.”
Increasingly more MLB groups have turn out to be reluctant to make important investments in power-hitting first baseman on the opposite facet of 30.
Alonso, who turned 30 final month, reportedly rejected a seven-year, $158 million extension supply throughout the 2023 season, earlier than Boras was his agent and earlier than David Stearns was the Mets’ president of baseball operations.
The Toronto Blue Jays are among the many groups to be linked to Alonso in current days.
“I’ll always stay flexible,” Cohen mentioned, “but if it stays this way, I think we may have to get used to the fact that we may have to go forward.”
