DALLAS — With Juan Soto’s resolution made, the Mets can now shift their consideration to Pete Alonso.
The homegrown slugging first baseman and fan favourite is testing the free company waters for the primary time this 12 months. Alonso has regularly stated he needs to return to the Mets and the sensation is mutual from the crew that drafted and developed him.
“We’d love to bring Pete back and Pete has been a great Met,” president of baseball operations David Stearns stated Monday on the winter conferences. “He had some enormous hits for us, and we’ll see where that goes.”
Nonetheless, it’s tough to gauge the probability of a return for the Polar Bear. The 2 events are repeating the identical sentiments they’ve repeated for a 12 months now. It doesn’t seem any progress has been made relating to Alonso, however now that Soto is off the board and headed to the Mets on a 15-year, $765 million contract, the market ought to open up for Alonso.
Like Soto, Alonso can also be represented by tremendous agent Scott Boras. So is left-hander Sean Manaea, one other former Met the membership want to convey again. Boras is predicted to talk this week in Dallas, as he at all times does on the winter conferences, however groups aren’t precisely dealing in specifics this time of 12 months. Boras may have some pithy one-liners and cringey jokes, however he isn’t about to point out his hand.
Neither is Stearns.
“I’m not going to characterize discussions about any particular free agent or negotiations with any particular free agent,” Stearns stated.
There may be one telling clue that feels considerably vital: the Mets don’t at the moment have plans to maneuver Mark Vientos throughout the diamond from third base to first.
“Mark did a tremendous job for us at third and we’re very comfortable with him there,” Stearns stated. “Certainly, as of now, we see him as our third baseman.”
In fact, the phrase “as of now” does depart the door open for the Mets to alter their thoughts about Vientos and transfer him to first base. Vientos, who might be 25 on Wednesday, had a breakout season on the plate in 2024 hitting 27 dwelling runs, posting an .837 OPS and a 135 OPS+ (100 is taken into account league common), which overshadowed the strides he made defensively.
Minus-6 Outs Above Common didn’t precisely earn him a gold glove, however he regarded like extra of a succesful defender than he did throughout his rookie season in 2023. The Mets credit score his work with shortstop Francisco Lindor, veteran infielder Jose Iglesias and infield coach Mike Sarbaugh, however additionally they credit score in-game reps and expertise.
“Every time he got to a baseball, the play was made,” stated supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “Good arm, really good hands, and just his internal clock got better as the year went on. [We’re] pretty confident that he [can] play third base.”
Once more, this all may change if Alonso lands elsewhere, or if the Mets see a commerce they like for a 3rd baseman this winter. Two years in the past, the Mets almost signed shortstop Carlos Correa to make use of him at third base. It’s factor they didn’t as a result of they might not have performed as deep into October as they did with out Vientos and his .998 postseason OPS, but it surely illustrates how issues can change when a coveted participant drops right into a crew’s lap.
It’s nonetheless robust to think about Alonso in some other uniform. He linked with town in methods few different gamers do and he was a driving pressure within the clubhouse and on the sector all through his six seasons in Flushing. The identical was stated about Brandon Nimmo two years in the past and he ended up signing an eight-year contract to stay with the Mets after going by means of the free company course of. Proprietor Steve Cohen continuously cites that instance when speaking about Alonso.
In the mean time, it’s unclear what Alonso’s market appears to be like like. He’s proven indicators of regression during the last two years, however he certain did present up within the postseason.
We’re about to search out out the going price for a 30-year-old, right-handed hitting first baseman. The Mets need to determine in the event that they’re snug with that sort of time period and cash. The one factor we all know is that they’ll afford no matter that value could also be, however the query is, will they wish to, or will they give the impression of being elsewhere to offer lineup safety for Soto?
“I think our ownership has consistently demonstrated that there’s going to be resources when we need them,” Stearns stated. “There is the ability for us to make baseball moves when we think that they are there to improve the team, and we’re going to continue to pursue a wide variety of areas to continue to improve our team.”
