The New York Mets’ offseason has been impressive, to say the least. Getting Juan Soto to join the team immediately adds multiple wins to a team that already went to the National League Championship Series last year, and they also retooled their rotation and added multiple cheap fliers with invitations to spring training.
There is still work to be done, though. Yes, they added a game-changing slugger with extensive postseason success in Soto, but let Pete Alonso hit free agency and negotiations to bring him back haven’t progressed to advanced stages.
Mets fans are growing impatient with lengthy Pete Alonso contract negotiations
Basically, president of baseball operations David Stearns is waiting for Alonso and his agent to realize that he is not going to get the kind of multi-year offer he wants. Fans, however, are growing impatient.
Alonso has been so good with the Mets since making his MLB debut in 2019 that he hit 34 home runs with a .788 OPS and a 122 wRC+ last year and everybody is talking about a “down season.” He accumulated 226 career homers at age 30, and could potentially make history with the Mets. He is powerful and clutch, as he showed time and time again in the postseason. Yet here he is, in the free agent market still, mainly because of the position he plays.
The Mets’ owner wants to waste no time
Mets owner Steve Cohen, however, is apparently growing impatient, too, according to recent reports.
“Steve Cohen may have to ‘jump in’ at some point for Pete Alonso, per @JimDuquetteGM,” New York Post’s Dan Bartels wrote on X.
When Cohen intervenes things usually get done in short order. The negotiations with Soto were reportedly led by him, and it became evident at one point that he was just going to outbid anyone by a significant margin.
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Cohen respects Alonso and wants him to return, and the player is dying to rejoin the Mets, too. It seems like a matter of time to see a reunion materializing, especially if the owner takes over and gives him enough to get his signature. In any case, a resolution appears to be around the corner, and Alonso is more likely to return to the Mets than signing with another squad.
