Following the recent thrill of the New York Mets extending one home-grown player in Jeff McNeil, all Mets fans now patiently wait on Pete Alonso.
Alonso, now 28, is gearing up for year five with the Mets. This offseason, from a contract standpoint, Alonso was eligible for arbitration. Nearly three weeks ago, he and the Mets were able to meet on a lucrative $14.5 million salary for 2023. Even with that agreement, a contract extension can still come about.
While it certainly would be great to get it done as soon as possible, it is, however, not a completely pressing need, and Alonso may want to wait. Ultimately, he is arbitration-eligible in 2024 as well and cannot become a free agent until 2025.
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New York Mets, Pete Alonso will have contract talks remain quiet:
When the extension gets announced is unknown. It could be before the start of the 2023 regular season or after. But, one key point that both the Mets and Alonso are motivated to uphold is keeping all negotiations close to the vest.
Andy Martino of SNY recently shared the following scoop.
“In past few weeks I’ve gotten polite refusals to talk about the extension topic from both the Mets front office and Pete Alonso’s agent. If and when talks do begin, both sides determined to keep it quiet.”
This does follow up with what Mets general manager Billy Eppler recently stated, “I made it a point that we were not going to talk about any player or employee-related matters. I don’t want our business on the street. It’s not fair to the people involved.”
Both the Mets and Alonso are taking a professional approach. One would assume they are motivated to extend their partnership for many years to come. Now, all we can hope for is that it gets done before Alonso’s 2025 free agency.
As the outside speculation on when a deal gets done has only built, so have projections on what the contract could look like. Two days ago, I discussed the proposal shared by Jon Morosi of MLB Network. He suggested eight years for $200 million, making for an average annual salary of $25 million.
Last night on SNY, Jim Duquette shared his thoughts on the details of a potential contract. He proposed an eight-year deal worth $240 million, a per-year salary of $30 million.
At the moment, it seems most likely that, for starters, the duration of this deal will be anywhere from eight to 10 years. Logical length considering that Alonso just turned 28 less than two months ago. A minimum of eight years keeps him in Queens until his early mid-30 years.
The value is projected to be anywhere in the $25-30 million a year range, like the two proposals noted above had. So, if Alonso gets eight years, the total value will be at least $200 million. At most, should he get 10 years and want top dollar, the contract value could max out at $300 million.
It is undoubtedly going to cost the Mets a lot, but keeping Alonso for the long term is non-negotiable. His power, posting seasons with 53, 40, and 37 home runs, is immensely valuable. Alonso has been a force to the Mets lineup when it comes to driving in runs, with 380 runs batted in through four years (530 games). His growth as both a contact hitter and defensively at first base has been impressive as well.
As much as anything, Alonso has asserted himself as an available, everyday player that the Mets can count on. The Mets need to keep their own in-house, and hopefully, something with Alonso comes to fruition at some point in the near future.