By now one would hope Pete Alonso has finally gotten the memo: The Mets never wanted him back. That’s why they never budged off their three-year offer in the $70 million range to him when he and his agent Scott Boras continued to push, first, for six and five-year deals and finally three years with an annual average value substantially more than the $23 million per Mets offer.
Alonso no doubt always hoped the Mets — and particularly Steve Cohen — would come around and recognize his value as a most popular franchise player and figure out a way to keep him at Citi Field. He never realized how firm Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns and his merry band of analytics minions were in their belief that immobile corner infielders in their 30s were a bad long-term investment. When he hired Boras to represent him he probably thought Boras’ relationship with Cohen, stemming back to the record Max Scherzer contract in 2021, would eventually result in the Mets owner superseding Stearns and bowing to the fans’ pleas to bring him back.
Didn’t happen, even after Cohen and Boras completed the record 15-year, $765 million deal for Juan Soto. Cohen is obviously fully on board with Stearns’ philosophy of limiting free agent deals to three years or fewer (the Soto contract of course being the notable exception). At the signing press conference for another client, Corbin Burnes, in Arizona last week, Boras lamented the lack of spending by the owners this offseason. He noted that 24 of the 30 clubs presently have payrolls lower than last year, with the Mets topping the list at minus $78 million — even with the Soto addition — thanks to the unloading of the contracts of Scherzer, Justin Verlander, James McCann, Omar Narvaez, Adrian Houser and Jake Diekman.
It is a bit curious why so few teams are spending money this winter. The uncertainty over the local TV revenues has a lot to do with it, but how do you figure perennial contenders like the Braves, Cardinals, Brewers and Twins not having signed a single free agent? None of them apparently will be bidders for Alonso or Boras’ other premier free agent, Alex Bregman, and it would seem, after reaping a perfect storm with four of the highest revenue teams — Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays and Red Sox — all bidding for Soto, his work is cut out for him.
In Alonso’s case, now that all the other free agent first basemen — Christian Walker, Carlos Santana, Paul Goldschmidt and Josh Bell found homes while Boras attempted to play hardball with the Mets — his options have dwindled considerably. Two other teams, the Diamondbacks (Josh Naylor) and Nationals (Nathaniel Lowe) filled their first base vacancies via trades.
I’m told the Blue Jays, who were rumored to have interest in Alonso, are now focused on trying to extend Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Similarly, the Red Sox, another disappointed suitor for Soto, have been in talks with Boras about Bregman (for second base) and, for now, are content to see what Triston Casas can do over a full injury-free season before making a long-term commitment at first base.
A best bet landing spot for Alonso at this point is the Giants, who have a need for a power-hitting first baseman and the money to pay for one, although given the way the Mets’ negotiations went, his market has seemingly settled at three years, with Boras needing a bidding war to get anything much beyond $70 million (“If the Mets wouldn’t go beyond that for their own guy, why would we?”). Boras has got the same problem in trying to reap his desired goal of $200 million for Bregman after turning down a seemingly very fair six-year, $156 million offer from the Astros.
It’s understandable if Stearns & Co. view Alonso as a player in decline and not worth a big long-term investment. At the same time, however, if they presumably move defensively challenged Mark Vientos to first and go with some combination of Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuna and Ronny Mauricio at third you have to ask: Are they really a better team now with Soto?
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
With the Hall of Fame vote to be announced Tuesday, allow me to play the role of spoiler. The Baseball Writers will elect Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner with Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran getting close. I’ll be especially happy for Wagner, a good guy and a credit to the game who’s on his last year on the ballot after falling just short — with 73.8% — last year.
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