The Mets and Yankees open spring training with contract uncertainties
No doubt, the most important agenda item for first-year Mets general manager David Stearns is the contract status of 29-year-old first baseman Pete Alonso, one of the franchise’s most statistically productive position players ever. Alonso has 192 home runs and 498 RBI in five seasons, including a 57-game, Major League Baseball shortened 2020 COVID campaign. When he made his MLB debut in 2019, he played in 161 of 162 possible games, crushed a rookie record 53 homers, in addition to 120 RBI and 30 doubles on his way to being named the NL Rookie of the Year.
His resume is also highlighted by three All-Star Game appearances (2019, 2022, 2023), the MLB home run leader (2019) and the most RBI in the NL in 2022 (131). But it is no sure thing the Mets and Alonso will agree on a long-term deal. They avoided arbitration on a contract for this season when Alonso signed a one-year deal for $20.5 million in January. But now, entering his sixth season, his Mets career could be close to its ending.
Alonso’s status amplifies the uncertainties the Mets face with a new general manager and manager in Carlos Mendoza, the 44-year-old former bench coach for the Yankees who is in his first job piloting a team on the major league level. The 39-year-old Stearns came to the Mets after holding the GM position for the Milwaukee Brewers from September 2015 through last season. He is a Manhattan native from the Upper East Side who worked in the Mets’ baseball operations department in 2007 after graduating from Harvard. The Mets finished last season 75-87 and in fourth place in the NL East.
“The only contract matters that we talked about were my one-year contract this year,” said Alonso last Saturday at the Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “And again, I’m very happy that I’m back with this group. Yeah, I’m stoked. I’m stoked to get this year going, and it’s an exciting time in spring.”
On Meet at the Apple, the Mets’ official podcast, team owner Steve Cohen acknowledged Alonso’s significance on and off the field.
“He’s an important part of our team today and hopefully in the future,” Cohen said. “We know the fans feel strongly about him and I’m not tone-deaf. I totally understand the fans’ love of Pete.”
A supposition by many around baseball is Alonso’s agent, Scott Boras, one of the most influential and pioneering agents in the history of sports business, will take Alonso into free-agency next season with the objective of securing his client a multi-year contract that will exceed $300 million. There are currently only 14 MLB players with contracts that have a value of $300 million or more, topped by the Dodgers DH/pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who inked a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December, the highest ever in North American team sports.
Boras also represents Yankees superstar outfielder Juan Soto, who the team acquired in a seven-player trade with the San Diego Padres in December. Soto, like Alonso, is in the final year of his contract and will command more money than Alonso. Similar to the Mets, whether Soto will remain a Yankee beyond this season is unclear. The Yankees signed 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge to a nine-year, $360 million contract in December of 2022 and still have DH/outfielder Giancarlo Stanton’s deal under them for $98 million and four more seasons.
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