Let's hope Pete Alonso isn't another Mets great who gets away

Everything was gray Saturday afternoon in Flushing.

The Mets City Connect jerseys were concrete colored, and thanks to uniform delays this season, the Cardinals were wearing road grays instead of their Saturday powder blues. The sky was overcast, and even the opposing starting pitcher was Gray (to be fair, his first name is Sonny).

But if there was one bright spot, it came in the fifth inning of the Mets' 7-4 loss: Pete Alonso’s arching 403-foot home run to the bullpen in right.

It breathed life into an offense, drew the Mets to within two, and had the benefit of being Alonso’s 200th homer as a Met. He did it in his 710th major-league game, making him the fourth-fastest player to reach that milestone, and placed him in rarified air: He joined Darryl Strawberry, David Wright and Mike Piazza as only the fourth Met to hit 200 homers with the club.

It's kind of apt, isn’t it? That Alonso was again the highlight amid a series of lowlights.

Since his rookie season in 2019, this team has often been aggressively mediocre – a record of 378-356. Three of those five seasons ended with a losing record, they never finished better than second place, and have made exactly one trip to the playoffs – a three-game wild card loss to the Padres.

Alonso has seen them through it all – standing in front of his locker, expressing unwavering belief in this franchise with an earnestness and affability that immediately endeared him to a fanbase more known for its fatalism. (He also socked all those dingers. That endeared him to Mets fans, too.)

Which is why it's positively absurd that he might not be here, doing this exact thing next year.

Everyone knows the deal: The Mets haven’t extended him yet, and though there’s every chance he stays put, there’s no guarantee. Alonso, after all, switched over to Scott Boras, and Boras clients don’t generally come cheap. Next year’s free agent class is stacked, and were Steve Cohen intent on pursuing a player like, say, Juan Soto, tossing an extra $200 million to save the Polar Bear could be a hard sell. If the Mets are out of it at the trade deadline, moving Alonso could net them a pretty package of prospects – one that furthers the franchise ethos of building a self-sustaining farm system.

And frankly, Alonso might just want to test free agency; another team – maybe one that hasn’t hit the fourth and final luxury tax tier – could simply offer him more.

None of that should matter.

Baseball is a business, sure. But businesses are built on relationships, and the one Alonso has with this team and this fanbase is worth its weight in Cohen Cash. It could very well be that nothing David Stearns can say in-season will lead to an extension, but it’s vital he try. If Alonso does go shopping around – and he has every right to do so – convincing him to stay needs to be a priority.

“He means a lot to the team and the fanbase,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s a special player, a special person… I think everyone knows who Pete Alonso is – the type of player, the type of hitter, the power. When you mention (players like Aaron Judge or Ralph Kiner, who are among the quickest to get to 200), that’s a pretty special group, and that’s who he is.”

It's hard to contextualize history when you’re seeing it. It can be hard, too, to look at the Mets’ lean years and immediately slot Alonso in with the likes of Strawberry, Wright and Piazza – all of whom were part of significant playoff pushes.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn't belong there.

Strawberry himself has said that he wants Alonso to stay a Met, and to break his franchise record of 252 home runs. And in an Instagram post last year, he said he rued the day he decided to leave New York. “The Mets must sign Peter Alonso to a long-term contract,” Strawberry wrote. “He will become the all-time home run leader for the franchise. Only a handful of homegrown everyday players have thrived in the pressure of New York and Alonso has proved he has what it takes.”

Alonso Saturday was told Strawberry repeated the sentiment.

“That’s really special,” Alonso said. “Darryl is one of those iconic guys – like when you think of the Mets organization, you think of one of their big pillars, you think of Straw.”

And when you think of this version of the Mets – the one that’s hoping to scrap its way into the postseason and bridge the gap to 2025 – you think of Pete.

You think of his candid interviews, his rookie of the year season, and the 131 runs he batted in 2022. You think of “LFGM,” his campaign to wear first responder hats to commemorate 9/11, and very long, very loud home runs.

And look, maybe this all works out. Maybe the Mets are mediocre this year, and they go all in for next season. Maybe their young talent (mostly) works out, and maybe that build that sustainable winner Cohen talks about.

Shouldn’t Alonso be here for that?

I asked him Saturday if he allows himself to think about the history he's making, and he said he did, but “for maybe three seconds.”

“Then it’s like, hey, you’ve gotta keep showing up and competing and be really focused on the day to day. But yeah, I’ll reflect more on it in the offseason for sure.”

But there’s a chance he’ll be doing that reflecting with a sense of nostalgia, having closed a chapter of his career here when he should have stayed – another Strawberry, another Tom Seaver. Another one that got away.

For the sake of the franchise, let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Because Alonso should be making franchise history, not repeating it.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.