Cohens’ Grand Plan: Mets Owner Unveils Bold Vision for Pete Alonso, Leaving Fans Speechless
At the team’s news conference to introduce Juan Soto, Mets owner Steve Cohen said the team is “still engaged” with Pete Alonso, via Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic. That comes a few days after baseball operations president David Stearns said at the Winter Meetings that the team would “love to bring Pete back.”
There hasn’t been much public chatter about Alonso’s free agency. Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote that Alonso would have interest in joining the Yankees if the Mets don’t make a serious push to retain him. Ties between the Yanks and Alonso have been fairly loose, though, as reports have cast them as stronger suitors for Christian Walker. Beyond the New York teams, chatter about the Alonso market has been speculative. The Nationals and Giants are among the teams that could use an impact bat at first base, but there’s no firm indication they’ve been involved.
Alonso declined a qualifying offer last month. Aside from the Mets, every team would forfeit draft picks and/or international signing bonus space to add him. The Mets would relinquish the right to receive a compensatory pick, but that’d only come after the fourth round if he walked. It’s a minimal barrier.
The slugger is coming off a relative down year. Alonso hit .240/.329/.459, the first time in his career he’s had an OPS below .800. His 34 home runs is a personal low over a full season. It’s not an ideal time for his production to dip, but there’s obvious value in a player whose floor is a 30+ homer showing. Alonso has been incredibly durable and started 160 games this past season. He heated up in the postseason, hitting .273/.431/.568 with four homers over 13 games.
As MLBTR explored in a post for Front Office subscribers last month, Alonso is a tricky free agent to value. His reputation could lead his camp to seek a deal approaching or topping Matt Olson ($168M) and Freddie Freeman ($162M with deferrals). Front offices have increasingly devalued this general profile, though. Alonso has limited defensive and baserunning value, while his average and on-base percentage are middling.
Stearns preferred not to invest heavily at first base during his time leading baseball operations with the Brewers. Milwaukee ran payrolls that were a fraction of what the Mets do under Cohen, of course, so that’s not necessarily an indication of how Stearns will operate in Queens. Even after paying Soto a record $51M average annual value, New York has an estimated luxury tax payroll around $252M (via RosterResource). That’ll probably end up north of $300M by the end of the offseason. They could certainly accommodate Alonso financially. New York also needs to add at least one starter and will probably deepen the bullpen via another acquisition or two.
