Business insiders proceed to call the New York Mets because the “most likely” touchdown spot for free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso, however there’s been no indication for the reason that conclusion of the 2024 Nationwide League Championship Collection that the 2 sides have come near placing pen to paper on the kind of contract Alonso’s camp wishes.
On Monday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and The Athletic’s Jim Bowden touched upon how this stalemate might finish in a method that will profit each events.
“At this level, Alonso will virtually actually get an opt-out-laden short-term deal, and the Mets do have a gaping gap at first, and till one other workforce steps up, the expectation shall be a renewal of vows,” Passan mentioned. Whereas Passan added that the Mets “can shift Mark Vientos throughout the diamond and fill the third-base void internally or externally,” Abbey Mastracco of the New York Day by day Information shared that “there doesn’t seem like a lot curiosity in that plan.”
SNY, the tv residence of the Mets, talked about on Monday that big-spending workforce proprietor Steve Cohen stays “very open to excessive common annual worth offers that are not prolonged” after Cohen signed All-Star outfielder Juan Soto to a massive 15-year, $765M contract earlier within the offseason. On paper, the Mets should not need to lose the 34 residence runs and 88 RBI that Alonso contributed throughout 162 regular-season video games in 2024. Nonetheless, that does not imply Cohen and workforce president of baseball operations David Stearns must be fast to overpay for a 30-year-old right-handed hitting first baseman after groups such because the New York Yankees, Cleveland Guardians, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks addressed the place by way of different transactions.
“I simply can’t see the ‘Polar Bear’ in one other uniform — a minimum of not this 12 months,” Bowden mentioned. Bowden additionally recommended the slugger could must comply with a three-year take care of a excessive common annual worth and a number of opt-outs contemplating no workforce appears to be in a rush to signal him to a five- or six-year contract.
SNY famous that Alonso wager on himself when he reportedly rejected a seven-year, $158M contract extension from the Mets throughout the 2023 marketing campaign. He then endured multiple slumps final season, and it seems these chilly streaks will price him hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in assured cash.
