By Mike Rifkin
One of the big headlines entering the 2024 Mets season is the impending free agency of first baseman Pete Alonso. The 29 year old Alonso had 46 home runs and 118 RBI last season. Outside of 2020 Alonso has hit over 30 home runs and drove in more than 90 runs.
Over the weekend Mets owner Steve Cohen spoke to the media and said the team and the star first baseman have yet to engage in extension talks and expects Alonso to hit free agency after the season. Cohen said “ I think at this point for Pete it’s best for him to go have a great year and not be distracted. I think that’s best for the ballclub. We know how to do this. We did it with Edwin Diaz, we did it with Brandon Nimmo after the season. We’ll figure it out when we get there.” This goes hand in hand with what new President of Baseball Ops David Stearns has said when it comes to extension talks. Now the fan part of me believes that there have been some behind the scenes discussions about an extension, especially when Alonso arrived at Spring Training and didn’t put a deadline on a possible extension. But then there’s the major question of what if the Mets are nine games out of the last wildcard spot at the trade deadline. Would they move Alonso at that point and hope they’d still have a shot at re-signing him during free agency (thin Aroldis Chapman to Yanks). Or would Alonso not give the Mets the time of day? One thing fans love is when teams are able to keep their homegrown talent, in 2012 the Mets (under different ownership) had a decision whether to keep David Wright or Jose Reyes. Both were fan favorites and as homegrown talent the fans felt differently about them.
Alonso is tied for fourth in franchise history in home runs with Howard Johnson, only trailing Wright, Mike Piazza and Darryl Strawberry. What’s something those three guys have in common they’ll all have their numbers retired by the organization at some point. Now as fans it’s ok to be afraid that Alonso can leave as a free agent, we have to have faith in an owner that has never allowed us to doubt him before. But for the sake of Steve Cohen and David Stearns I wouldn’t poke the bear or the fan base for that matter.
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