New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, top baseball operations executive David Stearns, and manager Carlos Mendoza held a forum during the team’s fan fest event on Saturday. Predictably, the group was met with “We want Pete” chants from onlookers hoping to persuade the braintrust into entering a new agreement with longtime first baseman and current free agent Pete Alonso.
Whether or not Alonso will return to the Mets (who seem to be making contingency plans) is to be seen, but Cohen used the opportunity to vent about what he deemed “an exhausting conversation and negotiation” with Alonso and agent Scott Boras.
“I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us,” Cohen said after divulging that the Mets have made a “significant offer” to Alonso. “I think it’s highly asymmetric against us. I feel strongly about it. I will never say ‘no,’ there’s always a possibility but the reality is we’re moving forward as we continue to bring in players, it’s hard to bring Pete into what is a very expensive group of players that we already have. That’s where we are. I’m being brutally honest.”
Cohen then reiterated that he didn’t like the terms being offered to the Mets and concluded by saying, “If it stays this way, we may have to go forward with the existing players that we have.” In other words, the door isn’t necessarily closed on Alonso rejoining the Mets, but it’s probably not a great sign that Cohen is publicly taking umbrage at the negotiations and preparing the fan base to move on.
Pete Alonso Plan B: Mets prepping internal options at first base if slugger signs elsewhere
R.J. Anderson
Earlier this month, it was reported by the New York Post that the Mets had made a three-year offer to Alonso worth around $70 million — essentially a slightly sweeter version of the contract the Houston Astros signed Christian Walker to in December. It’s understandable why Alonso would want more (he’s several years younger than Walker), but it’s also understandable why the Mets wouldn’t want to give him four or five years given how the industry perceives his profile (non-elite right-right first baseman) as being largely fungible.
Alonso, a four-time All-Star, is reportedly drawing interest from other teams in recent days, including the Toronto Blue Jays.
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