The long, cold winter brightened and warmed with the word Wednesday night that a Polar Bear will continue to prowl among us for the foreseeable future, which is to say one, maybe two years. Foreseeable may be a stretch. You live in the world today. You’ve ascertained that nobody can see very far into the future. The future is now. Now we know we have Pete Alonso for 2025.
Pete and the Mets are together again without ever having left one another, which is the way it should be. The contract that makes Alonso a Met for sure in ’25 and at his discretion in ’26 will give him lots of money, if not as much money as he would have liked when his free agency commenced. Not as many years, either, but he should consider the savings inherent in staying put. For example, he doesn’t have to invest in a new Hagstrom street atlas to cobble a route to a strange ballpark in a different town. Pete knows the way to Flushing Bay.
Does Pete know the way to Flushing Bay? Apparently so!
It’s a great Met move in the short term. The club brought in Juan Soto, which looms as all upside (for this decade, at least), just not as sky high as it could have been until one big question mark was eliminated from the penciling in of lineups. We had Juan. We had Francisco. We had Mark and Brandon and…uh, back up. Weren’t we missing somebody? We were. We won’t miss him anymore.
The Mets’ first baseman remains the Mets’ first baseman. Pete Alonso has filled that position for so long, it might not be easily recalled who last started at first base for the home team before Pete showed up at Citi in 2019. It was Jay Bruce, Closing Day 2018. Jay’s been retired a while. Messing around with Alonso alternatives, even if they distilled down to a relocated Mark Vientos, was going to be a chore. Vientos at first meant “who?” at third. Abbott & Costello didn’t have an obvious answer there, either.
The A&S Boys can start shopping for RBIs ASAP.
Instead, we have the A&S Boys, Alonso & Soto, filling the middle of the lineup and their shopping bags with RBIs. We have Lindor and Nimmo, as ever, along with young yet continually maturing Vientos and Alvarez. An array of other bats and gloves will be sorted. Pitchers will pitch. There’s never enough pitching, but that’s what the President of Baseball Operations is for. David Stearns is always seeking and finding help. He helped himself, with the support of Steve Cohen, to slugging first baseman Pete Alonso, he of the 226 Met homers and the ability to hit at least 27 more before he has the opportunity to opt out. That would give the Polar Bear 253 and the franchise record. Of course I won’t want him to take his record and tour the open market anew next winter, but that’s next winter. There’s a Spring directly ahead. There’s a last winter detail taken care of. Are we sure the weather’s that frigid in New York today?
Welcome back Pete! Sorry it’s only $30 million. So, you’ll downsize!
So Pete gets another one-year audition. Hope he does better than last year and has a reason to opt out. Of course then we’ll get to do this all over again but that’s why GMs and Agents get paid. Really hope he hits 27 HRs next season too. Glad he’s back and the drama is over with.
finally, thank you! to all of the parties that made this happen.
pete no doubt learned something in all of this and i expect he won’t be distracted by the walk year issues of last season:
as we observed, there’s not always a *there* there. pete can concentrate on winning, and try to feed off the moment in milwaukee, when pete saved the season, and sent the exhausted mets to philly.
maybe he can treat 27 as a target for the first half…find his plate discipline and swing again with a ring on the mind. i’m bullish on pete ’25 and on the mets. and i’m relieved. we’ll deal with the next contract drama, hopefully after a long run into october.
Made my day. I mean why wouldn’t the Mets want to keep the greatest home run hitter they have ever had? He will set the Mets record and maybe get to 500, hopefully all with the Mets.
The deal makes such good sense all around. Nobody else was going to pay him $30M, but he gets that from the Mets as a result of a big home run and 6 years of being a Fan Favorite and 226 other Home Runs.
He’s due for somewhat of a bounceback Age 30 Year, but probably not enough of a bounceback for anybody to think he’d be worth more than $24M in 2026. So it looks like we’ve got him for at least 2 more years. Hopefully that can produce at least one Championship.
So happy that Pete is back, even if it is for just one season.
What gets me, though, are those who believe he is not a good fielder. In reality, he is much better than average, if you are watching the games.
He scoops up virtually every errant throw from our noodle-armed infielders, and he spears virtually every lined shot down the line.
These same folks complain that he cuts off balls that the second baseman ought to field. It was ok when the great Keith Hernandez did it, allowing numerous baserunners to reach base, but when Pete does it, all of a sudden there is something wrong.
We always heard the first baseman should go for everything he can get to.
Welcome Back, Pete!
YES!!!
[sung to the tune in the Chili’s Baby Back Ribs commercial]: “We’ve got our Beary back Beary back Beary back We’ve got our Beary back Beary back Beary back…” Welcome back, Pete Alonso! The Mets have their Soto protector and lineup and infield intact. What a boost. He did end up getting a lot less than what was originally offered, but it was his choice. He got what the market would Bear.
Love the Hagstrom New York City Atlas, with Shea Stadium, of all venues, on the front cover. Is that the Todd Pratt playoff-winning walkoff home run?
Keen eye for Mets tableaus — that is indeed Pratt’s big moment. Jason and I are among the 55,000 or so in the background.
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