What’s the Mets’ plan for Alonso?

This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it frequently in your inbox.

Over the previous week, Mets proprietor Steve Cohen and common supervisor Billy Eppler have made the group’s imaginative and prescient clear — they intend to speculate judiciously within the 2024 roster earlier than increasing their dedication to profitable baseball in 2025. That doesn’t imply the Mets will likely be noncompetitive in 2024, however it does make a playoff run tougher.

It’s exhausting to think about that timeline with out additionally contemplating the way forward for Pete Alonso, a beloved homegrown Met who is simply below crew management by means of 2024. If the Mets aren’t going to commit vital assets to enhance the forged round Alonso subsequent season, is there some extent to conserving him? Might the Mets actually make the cold-blooded business determination to commerce Alonso? Or will they enchantment to the extra emotional facet of the fan base and lengthen him?

“Whatever their vision is, whatever their plan is, it really doesn’t necessarily matter to me because I’m here right now,” Alonso stated. “I want to be the best player I can be right now and for as long as I’m here. It could be forever. We’ll see what happens.”

Ultimately, the Mets have 4 choices in the case of Alonso:

Judging by Cohen’s feedback, this can be a technique the Mets will at the very least discover. But it has to make monetary sense. In talks, Alonso’s camp will certainly use Matt Olson’s eight-year, $168 million extension with the Braves as a place to begin and ask for extra from there. Alonso will most likely take a crack on the good spherical variety of $200 million. With a robust season subsequent summer season, he may simply get it. It appears uncertain Alonso will signal an extension for something considerably lower than open-market worth, however maybe the Mets might negotiate a slight low cost in the event that they decide to doing one thing sooner quite than later — i.e. this upcoming winter.

This is the commerce technique that will web the Mets the most important return, contemplating an buying crew would obtain a full yr of Alonso’s providers. But it could even be wildly unpopular with the fan base and clubhouse and would sign that the Mets are usually not realistically looking for a 2024 playoff run. For these causes, it feels just like the unlikeliest consequence.

This might come into play if two issues occur: the Mets discover themselves out of competition subsequent July and their extension talks with Alonso — assuming these occur over the offseason — go nowhere. At that time, the Mets might resolve to see what kind of haul they’ll get for Alonso, quite than danger shedding him for nothing greater than a Draft choose.

This is the default choice and maybe essentially the most reasonable, contemplating how shut Alonso already is to the open market. As a rule, star gamers like to check free company, and Alonso has added incentive to take action given his sturdiness and the truth that he’s already making a comparatively excessive arbitration wage. What’s vital to notice is that if Alonso does attain free company, it received’t essentially dampen his odds of returning — not if the Mets are dedicated to conserving him. Cohen pointed to Brandon Nimmo, who hit the open market solely to simply accept a profitable eight-year supply from his earlier employer. One profit of getting the richest proprietor in baseball is that he has the aptitude to outbid anybody.

“We love Pete as a Met,” Cohen stated. “He’s an integral part of the Mets. He’s still with us for another year. Listen, we hope we work things out. Even with Brandon, we worked things out in free agency, so hopefully we get a few shots at the apple and try to figure it out.”

All that’s clear now’s that mutual curiosity exists in a long-term dedication between Alonso and the Mets. What comes of it stays to be seen.

“I’m going to keep those conversations internal between myself and Pete,” Eppler stated. “But he’s such a strong player for this organization, and he means so much to the community and our identity. Between him and Francisco [Lindor] and Brandon, these are guys that we rely on.”