Livescore
The Mets have a lot of pending free agents, including the majority of their starting rotation. But the biggest decision will be regarding Pete Alonso, the career Met who had a relatively down regular season before erupting during New York’s magical postseason run.
Alonso, who will be entering his age-30 season in 2025, will almost certainly be given a one-year qualifying offer by the Mets and reject it.
After that, things will get real.
Speaking at Citi Field on Wednesday, president of baseball operations David Stearns touched on a lot of topics, including the future of Alonso, who was at the ballpark and spoke to Stearns in passing before the media availability started.
“He’s a great Met,” Stearns said. “I hope we have him back. I think we both understand this is a process, and everyone’s got their own interest. And Pete deserves to go out into the free agent market and see what’s out there, and then ultimately make the best choice for him and his family.”
Alonso, who hired Scott Boras as his agent last offseason, was open to an extension with the Mets before hitting free agency. And Stearns said last winter that the Mets were receptive to any possible discussions with Boras. But, unsurprisingly, nothing came together with Alonso so close to hitting the open market.
Now, as the Mets enter an offseason where they have lots of money coming off the books and are expected to be much more aggressive than they were last offseason, one of the things that could help shape the road they take is the future of Alonso.
And as they weigh what to do, it won’t just be about what Alonso does on the field. It’ll be about the other factors, too.
“How Pete is as a person is important,” Stearns explained. “What he means to this franchise is important. Who he is as a player is also important — what he contributes on the field. There’s no magic formula to this.
“There’s no equation that spits out what all of that is for us. And so there’s judgment involved, there’s evaluating the market involved. And we’ll see how this process goes throughout the offseason.”
When asked if Alonso is a “foundational” player for the Mets, Stearns noted that he had been.
“I think Pete has been absolutely a foundational piece for this organization,” he said. “A tremendous Met. He’s performed at a very high level.”
Alonso, whose OPS has trended down in recent seasons — from .869 in 2022 to .821 in 2023 to .788 in 2024 — seemed to be in his own head at times during the regular season, perhaps due to the understandable pressure that comes with wanting to perform in your walk year.
But he unlocked something in the postseason, and one of his playoff eruptions was a series-winning, come-from-behind three-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the Wild Card Series in Milwaukee.
Overall, Alonso hit .273/.431/.568 with four homers, one double, 10 RBI, and 12 walks in 58 plate appearances over 11 postseason games.
And as the Mets determine how many years and dollars to offer Alonso, one of the things they’ll have to determine is how many prime years they think he has left.
In that vein, one of the questions posed to Stearns was about the delicate balance of trying to pay a player for what they’re going to be — not what they were.
“I think that’s always the question,” Stearns said. “My job — our job — is to put teams together that are gonna win going forward. And so we’ll continue to evaluate that — not only with Pete, but for the entirety of the player landscape and the entirety of our team. And we’ll do our best to put a team together that allows us to compete next year and for years to come.”
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