MLB Community’s Jim Duquette sounded confident final week that the Toronto Blue Jays touchdown free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso was “out of the equation” after Toronto agreed to a five-year deal price at the very least $92.5M with outfielder Anthony Santander.
Throughout Monday’s version of the SNY “Baseball Night in New York” program, MLB insider Andy Martino advised the Blue Jays won’t match what the New York Mets already provided Alonso throughout what Mets proprietor Steve Cohen lately known as “an exhausting conversation and negotiation” course of.
“The ultimate Mets provide that Alonso turned down, that is going to be robust for him to beat with the Blue Jays,” Martino defined. “That was the $70M that we talked about for 3 years, further deferred cash. That might have been an actual win, most likely, in what the final word greenback determine would have seemed like for Alonso. Given what the Blue Jays gave Santander, which was within the 60s after the deferred cash, [Alonso] might be not going to get nearly as good a suggestion from Toronto as they’ve already gotten from the Mets and turned down.”
Cohen raised eyebrows when he revealed throughout this previous Saturday’s “Amazin’ Day” fan occasion that he did not “just like the constructions which might be being offered again to us” amid contract talks with Alonso’s camp. Per SNY’s Phillip Martinez, Martino reported final week that the Mets’ newest three-year proposal that included opt-outs was price “greater than $70M” whole in “deferrals and stuff.”
Martino added at the moment it is unclear if that supply remains to be on the desk within the occasion that Alonso experiences a change of coronary heart and contacts Cohen instantly about placing pen to paper on a contract.
Whereas quite a few tales have linked Alonso with the Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels, there stays no indication any of these groups are in a rush to equal or higher what the Mets provided the 30-year-old slugger who to date has solely performed for the Amazins’ throughout his MLB profession.
“I’m nonetheless getting an expectation that if he comes again, it’ll take some time,” Martino mentioned in regards to the Mets presumably re-signing Alonso. “It looks like we might simply get to spring coaching the place that is nonetheless a subject, and if Pete re-signs, it might be when the Mets are already in camp. There’s no purpose for the Mets to hurry.”
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns will not bid towards himself concerning Alonso, however each Stearns and Cohen were reminded throughout Saturday’s occasion that many paying clients need the “Polar Bear” to be a part of a 2025 lineup that may even characteristic All-Star outfielder Juan Soto. Assuming Martino is appropriate, it seems the Alonso saga might drag on via at the very least the center of February.
