Weeks after Mets owner Steve Cohen was “brutally honest” about his displeasure of negotiating with his homegrown slugger Pete Alonso, he took the necessary procedures to eventually complete the transaction.
On Thursday, after Mike Puma of The New York Post reported that Cohen and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns drove to Tampa on Tuesday to meet with Alonso at a social club where he belongs, his colleague Jon Heyman revealed what they discussed.
“I was clear,” Cohen told The Post’s Jon Heyman. “I told him that I want you back. “We want you back.”
It was Alonso’s first straight conversation with Cohen and Stearns, and the four-time All-Star did not mince words, according to Puma.
“Cohen and Stearns listened as Alonso outlined his frustrations of not receiving the type of offer from the Mets, given his productivity and what he meant to the organization, that he believed he deserved,” according to Puma, via The Post.
Alonso’s free agency market was down for a variety of factors. First and foremost, he is a 30-year-old right-handed first baseman who is coming off his worst offensive season.
Despite not missing a single game in 2024, he did bat.In a 162-game season, he batted 240 with a.788 OPS, his career worst. Even in a 162-game season, he has 34 home runs and 88 RBIs, both career lows.
There’s also the fact that the Mets wisely extended Alonso the qualifying offer. This made him less appealing to competing teams, who would lose a draft pick if they signed him.
In the end, Alonso received a two-year, $54 million contract with an opt-out clause after the first year. Alonso aims to take full use of this prove-yourself contract.
