Pete Alonso’s free-agent saga is over, and he ended up proper the place he began.
The primary baseman agreed to a two-year, $54 million contract with the Mets, The Put up’s Jon Heyman reported.
The deal, agreed to Wednesday night time, was pending a bodily and contains an opt-out after this season, so Alonso can hit the open market once more if he places up higher numbers than he did in a subpar 2024.
He’ll make $30 million this season, with a $24 million participant possibility for 2026, because the Mets waited out Alonso, who couldn’t discover a extra profitable deal elsewhere.
Alonso was additionally provided a three-year take care of the Mets value $71 million, however opted for a two-year contract with a better AAV and the opt-out.
It ends what was a drawn-out course of for the 30-year-old who has spent his whole profession with the Mets after being drafted within the second spherical in 2016.
Alonso turned down a seven-year, $158 million extension in 2023 earlier than hiring agent Scott Boras.
However Alonso then had the worst season of his profession final yr, with 34 homers and a .788 OPS.
That, coupled with the actual fact he turned 30 this offseason and president of baseball operations David Stearns has proven he doesn’t prefer to signal gamers in that age vary to long-term offers, made for a questionable reunion.
“Personally, this has been an exhausting dialog and negotiation,’’ Mets proprietor Steve Cohen stated at Citi Subject on Jan. 25. “[Juan] Soto was powerful, that is worse.”
As The Put up reported, the Mets beforehand provided Alonso a three-year deal value round $68 million to $70 million this offseason, which Alonso’s camp rejected.
When that was turned down in mid-January, the Mets made strikes in anticipation of Alonso heading elsewhere by re-signing Jesse Winker and bringing in one other free agent, A.J. Minter, to bolster their bullpen.
Additionally they informed Mark Vientos and Brett Baty to take grounders at first base this offseason, although that may have left the Mets with an infield with inexperienced gamers on each corners of the diamond.
And even final week, Cohen added, “I’ll by no means say ‘no’ — there’s all the time a chance — however the actuality is, we’re shifting ahead. As we proceed to usher in gamers, the fact is it turns into tougher to suit Pete into what’s a really costly group of gamers that we have already got.”
However they ultimately received again collectively as different golf equipment had been maybe scared off as a result of Alonso acquired a qualifying supply from the Mets, which might have required draft-pick compensation from the group that signed him.
So now the group that reached the NLCS earlier than falling to the Dodgers will carry again the same roster — plus the addition of Soto.
Although the free-spending Dodgers little doubt stay the favorites within the Nationwide League, the Mets now aren’t far behind.
For Alonso, it’s a tricky finish to his first foray into free company and he’ll should hope for a bounce-back season that might put him again into free company subsequent offseason in a greater place — much like what different Boras shoppers, Matt Chapman and Blake Snell, did with the Giants late final offseason.
Each then signed profitable long-term offers — Chapman an extension with San Francisco and Snell with the Dodgers.
Alonso could have Soto within the lineup with him, which figures to assist his manufacturing, because it did for Aaron Decide in The Bronx final season.
For the Mets, it’s a transparent victory, as they’re definitely higher with Alonso’s large bat at first and Vientos at third than the choice.
The Mets introduced right-hander Dylan Covey and infielder Luis De Los Santos had been outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse.