Mets make it painfully clear they want Pete Alonso back only on their terms
From left, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso and team owner Steve Cohen.
The Mets blamed Juan Soto’s glaring no-show at Saturday’s fanfest on a number of canceled flights that left him stranded in the Dominican Republic.
Their explanation for Pete Alonso’s absence from Amazin’ Day was not as relatable, and as you might expect, particularly aggravating to a Citi Field crowd that charitably decided to leave its torches and pitchforks at home.
Because unlike Soto, who will be wearing a Mets uniform when the players start rolling into Port St. Lucie in a few weeks for spring training, there seems to be an increasing chance that Alonso — the popular, homegrown Polar Bear — is going to be spending the rest of his career elsewhere.
At face value, it’s difficult for many to rationalize how Steve Cohen, the richest individual owner in baseball, could choose to give a supremely talented mercenary in Soto a 15-year, $765 million contract and abruptly shut off the money spigot for Alonso, who reportedly is struggling to get even a nine-figure deal — relative scraps for one of the game’s most prolific home run hitters.
From the jump, I always figured the Mets would find a way to keep Alonso in Flushing. Certainly not for the price he imagined — Alonso turned down a seven-year, $158 million extension during the ’23 season, a terrible miscalculation in retrospect — but something reasonably face-saving for the first-time free agent (evidently three years for $70 million ain’t it, either).
As of Saturday, however, there apparently is no room for sentimentality on the Mets’ roster, and neither Cohen nor president of baseball operations David Stearns was shy about saying so on the record.
I give both a ton of credit. You’re not going to find many front offices, and especially owners, that would be willing to follow through on a fanfest panel discussion while contractually butting heads with a popular star.
They’d be snowed in somewhere or fixing a flat tire on the LIE.
That’s not Cohen’s style, however. You don’t build a $25 billion fortune by ducking a fight, and he handled Saturday’s Piazza Club firing squad — as moderated by SNY’s Gary Cohen — in a blunt, unflinching manner. Your Uncle Stevie isn’t only a good-time Charlie.
When Cohen brought up the “big elephant in the room,” the hundreds of fans in the audience burst into “we want Pete!” chants, prompting Cohen to wave his hand in an effort to decrease the volume. From there, he gave it to them straight.
“Personally, this has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation,” Cohen said. “I mean, Soto was tough. This is worse. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetric against us and I feel strongly about it.
“I will never say no — there’s always a possibility. But the reality is, we’re moving forward . . . I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us. Maybe that changes. And certainly I’ll always stay flexible.
“If it stays this way, I think we’re going to have to get used to the fact that we may have to go forward with the existing players we have.”
Then a strange thing happened. The crowd broke into loud applause before Cohen could even finish his sentence. All these fanfest rowdies really wanted was an explanation, and if Uncle Stevie said Alonso’s camp — piloted by Scott Boras — was being unreasonable in the Mets’ eyes, that was good enough for them.
Sure, Stearns got booed for his clinical answer to the same Alonso question, but he looked unfazed by the audience response. It’s why Cohen hired him.
Stearns is the guy responsible for building a championship roster as efficiently as possible while Cohen swings the big financial hammer, i.e. landing the record-busting deal for Soto. Obviously, Stearns doesn’t have a long history with Alonso — taking over the reins during his walk year — and these negotiations are being handled as such, with Cohen & Co. prepping for a different future.
“We all love Pete,” Stearns said. “We’ve said that many times — we also understand that this is a business and Pete as a free agent deserves the right and has earned the privilege really to see what’s out there. We also feel really good about the young players who are coming through our system who have the ability to play at the major league level. That’s not always the most popular opinion, but we saw that last year, and we’re going to need to see it again.”
As for those young players, the Mets certainly gave the impression Saturday that they were being mobilized for the post-Alonso era in Flushing. Mark Vientos, the slugging prodigy who made great strides at third base last season, was trotted out as the heir apparent at first and even Brett Baty — previously seen learning second base at Triple-A Syracuse — said he was breaking in a new first baseman’s mitt he ordered earlier this month.
“Vientos is fearless, so I believe in him,” Francisco Lindor said. “I believe in what he can do. He’s a good athlete, and wherever he goes, he puts in the time and gives everything he’s got.”
The Mets obviously have zero fear of losing Alonso, who reportedly has been in discussions with the Blue Jays but otherwise doesn’t seem to have much of a market here in late January. And if Saturday’s blowback at a packed Piazza Club is as bad as it gets for Cohen & Co., they’ve already won these negotiations regardless of whether Alonso returns.
There’s no doubt the Mets are a better team with Alonso, and frankly, he’s not where I expected them to draw a line in the sand money-wise, based on his franchise stature. But they’ve made it painfully clear they want Alonso back only on their terms, so no one should’ve been surprised Saturday to hear him talked about in the past tense, a discussion as cold as the freezing temps outside.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
