In about a month, pitchers and catchers will report to spring training camps across Arizona and Florida, and the (very) long journey that is the 2025 MLB season will begin. For free agents, spring training is something of a soft signing deadline. No one wants to be without a job when camp opens. Free agents want to know where they're playing, where they're going to live, etc.
Things don't always work out that way though, even for big-name free agents. Last offseason, the Boras Four -- Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell -- did not sign until spring training opened. Bellinger signed about a week into camp and was the first to get a new deal. Montgomery, the last to sign, agreed to terms not long before Opening Day.
All four signed one-year contracts with large salaries and player options. Montgomery and Snell each received one player option while Bellinger and Chapman received two apiece. After the season, Montgomery and Bellinger picked up their 2025 player options. Chapman leveraged his into a long-term extension. Snell declined his and signed a large free-agent contract.
As spring training approaches, leverage begins to shift from the free agent to interested teams, and the odds increase that a player will sign a team-friendly short-term deal. Among the candidates for such a deal: Pete Alonso, longtime New York Mets first baseman and a Scott Boras client. In fact, it has been reported Alonso and Boras approached the Mets with such a deal. (Player options and opt outs are functionally the same thing. Tomato tomatoh.)
According to league sources, Pete Alonso’s camp has offered the Mets a three- year deal with opt outs. This deal is only available to the Mets right now. No deal known to be close at the moment, and Alonso’s agent Scott Boras declined comment . We’ll have more on Power Alley on…
— Jim Duquette (@JimDuquetteGM) January 10, 2025
The salary terms are unknown -- The Athletic speculated $34.1 million per year, which would break Miguel Cabrera's average annual salary record for a first baseman ($34 million from 2016-23) -- though odds are Alonso and Boras want to at least beat Bellinger's deal. Bellinger's contract was worth up to $80 million last offseason. That was the largest deal among the Boras Four.
For reasons we detailed in November, it is not the most surprising thing in the world that Alonso is having a hard time finding a contract to his liking this offseason. Free agency has been unkind to first basemen in their 30s the last decade or so and few big-spending contenders needed a first baseman or DH this offseason. Christian Walker's availability didn't help matters either.
Now 30, Alonso is second in home runs since his big league debut in 2019 (his 226 homers are six behind Aaron Judge) and he's been supremely durable, playing 846 of 870 possible regular season games since 2019. Guys you can pencil in for 30-plus dingers and 150 games a year aren't easy to find. And yet, Alonso remains unsigned with spring training about a month away.
Does a Bellinger-esque one-year contract with player options make sense for Alonso and Mets? What about Alonso and some other team? Let's explore.
Why it makes sense for Alonso
There's something to be said for being comfortable
Is Alonso going to get the massive $200-plus-million contract he presumably sought early in the offseason? No, almost certainly not, but he probably won't have to stress out about next month's mortgage payment either. Alonso has signed more than $40 million worth of contracts already in his career, and even a lower-end one-year deal with player options would pay him $20 million or so in 2025. He's going to be just fine financially. Maybe not as fine as he hoped, but fine. Generations of Alonsos will be taken care of.
It's worth it then to consider things other than money. Returning to the Mets means Alonso would remain with the only organization he's played for, rejoin the coaches and teammates and clubhouse staff and security guards and parking lot attendants he already knows, and have as seamless a transition as possible heading into the new season. And, of course, Alonso would get to play for a contending team. The Mets were already good and now they have Juan Soto. Who doesn't want to hit behind him?
It gives him the flexibility to give free agency another try
For all intents and purposes, a one-year deal with player options is a one-year deal with a series of insurance policies. The player options are there in case Alonso has a bad year or gets hurt, not because he may decide to forego a larger payday. For players in their prime, there is no such thing as a one-year contract. Carlos Correa was one of the first to hop on this trend when he signed with the Minnesota Twins (the first time). Player options are the cost of business now.
A one-year contract with player options would allow Alonso and Boras to survey the landscape and see what things looks like in a year or two, and make a decision. Also, Alonso would no longer be eligible for the qualifying offer because he received one this offseason. That removes draft-pick compensation, which can sometimes deter teams. Basically, a one-year deal with player options gives Alonso the security of a good payday while also giving him flexibility for the future, when the market could be more favorable.
He's beloved in Queens
Sign with any other team and he's Pete Alonso, Big Dinger Man. But, return to the Mets, and he's Pete Alonso, Beloved Homegrown Player. He doesn't have to win over Mets fans. He doesn't have to "earn" his contract in their eyes. He's done that already. Alonso has already connected with Mets fans in a way he simply won't be able to connect with any other fan base. Things are different with homegrown players. They just are. This sort of ties into the nugget about being comfortable. Returning to a fan base that already loves you surely has to take some of the pressure off, and make life a little better and a lot easier heading into a new season.
Why it makes sense for the Mets
They need another bat
Soto is one of the best hitters in the world and will give the Mets a significant lift offensively. The offense does start to thin out a bit quicker than you may realized once you get behind the top few lineup spots though. Using only players currently on the roster, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza would likely fill out his regular lineup card along these lines:
- SS Francisco Lindor, SHB
- RF Juan Soto, LHB
- 1B Mark Vientos, RHB
- LF Brandon Nimmo, LHB
- DH Starling Marte, RHB
- C Francisco Alvarez, RHB
- 2B Jeff McNeil, LHB
- CF Jose Siri, RHB
- 3B Brett Baty, LHB
In short order, that lineup goes from amazing to pretty good to this guy slugged under .400 last year and those guys are probably going to have an on-base percentage that starts with 2 this coming season. Alonso would send Vientos back to third base and Baty back to Triple-A (or out of the organization) and give the Mets' offense more length and power. Wouldn't that lineup look better with Alonso in the cleanup spot and everyone else bumped down a peg? I think so.
According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, New York's estimated 2025 competitive balance tax payroll is nearly $70 million south of last year's. Steve Cohen is baseball's wealthiest owner and last year's payroll (the last two years' payroll, really) suggests there is more than enough spending room to fit Alonso. Nimmo and Marte hit 30 homers combined in 2024. Surely that's not who the Mets want behind Lindor and Soto, is it?
It keeps the commitment short
The track record of right-handed hitting and right-handed throwing first basemen in their 30s is just terrible. Alonso is a right/right guy and that history is one reason the big free-agent contract he no doubt wanted hasn't materialized. Give Alonso a one-year deal with two player options and yeah, there's a chance the Mets get stuck with a lemon for three years. But it would only be three years. You can live with a three-year mistake, especially when Cohen's wealth allows the Mets to paper over their mistakes. It's the five-, six-, seven-year mistakes that really bog a franchise down, even one with this team's capacity to spend.
If the Mets give Alonso a one-year contract with player options, there's a chance we're right back here next offseason, having the same exact conversation. That's something to worry about next offseason though. Alonso and the Mets can worry about 2026 and 2027 when we get there. We can barely predict what will happen next month in this game. Worrying about next year is a waste of time. Point is, even with a high salary, a one-year deal with player options limits the risk for the Mets in case things do go south with Alonso, and he ages like so many right/right first basemen before him. They get what remains of a productive player's prime without having to pay for the deepest decline years. That is a front office's dream.
Alonso has marquee value
Alonso is worth more to the Mets than any other team. They could replace him with a similarly productive first baseman (trade for Yandy Díaz?), but that player won't sell tickets and merchandise the way Alonso will. That player won't have already won over the fan base. Alonso is only 27 home runs away from become the franchise's home run king. That will put butts in the seats and sell commercial time on SNY. It is something uniquely valuable to the Mets. Alonso doesn't offer that to any other team and the Mets aren't getting it from any other first baseman. Alonso's value to the Mets transcends what he does on the field. We can quibble over exactly how much marquee value Alonso provides, but it's definitely not zero.
Why it would make sense for Alonso with another team
Reports indicate that Alonso and Boras have proposed a one-year contract with players options to the Mets and only the Mets. That implies other teams still must come in with a long-term contract offer to get him. But, the closer we get to spring training, the more likely it is Alonso and Boras entertain short-term offers from other teams. The Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays are said to be among the teams with some level of interest in Alonso. Surely other teams will consider him under these contract terms too.
For lack of a better term, Alonso taking a one-year deal with player options from a team other than the Mets would be a cash grab. Oh sure, he'll say he believes the team can win at the introductory press conference, but accepting such a contract would give him a nice payday upfront and some security, plus the opportunity to give free agency another try as soon as next offseason. Alonso and Boras would be making the best of a situation they don't want. Players have a very short window in this game to get paid. If a deal isn't there with the Mets, one year with player options with any team may be Alonso's best (only?) way to cash in.
For the non-Mets team that hypothetically signs Alonso to such a contract, they would get a bona fide middle-of-the-order bat and not have to give out a long-term contract to get it. They keep the commitment short. Short enough that they're not buying decline years in bulk. They get to energize their fan base with a big signing, win more games in 2025, and not have to worry about things going sour in 2028 and beyond. Short-term deals for above-average players are always team-friendly, not player-friendly.
With the caveat that the situation can change with one phone call, it certainly seems like things are trending toward Alonso returning to the Mets on what can only be considered a favorable contract for the team. Alonso will get paid well too, though not as well as he hoped this winter. The Mets, meanwhile, would get to retain a beloved homegrown star player through the end of his peak, and add to a team that is already very good, but could use another bat. They would get that bat while avoiding a scary long-term deal.
Alonso and Boras have made their feelings known. They have reportedly approached the Mets about a one-year deal with player options, so they've already given up on a long-term contract, and given away that Queens is where Alonso wants to play. Front offices are ruthless. The Mets will use that to haggle with Boras and drive the price down further. In the end, with spring training only a month away, returning to the Mets on a one-year deal with player options figures to be the best outcome for Alonso. It would be a great capper to a strong offseason for the Mets too.
