PHOENIX — It’s coming down to the last month of the season for Pete Alonso and the New York Mets—a month that could culminate in an unexpected playoff run for the club and could solidify, or end, the slugger’s tenure in Queens as the current rendition of Mr. Met.
Alonso could be playing the last month for his beloved franchise. A free agent at the end of the World Series, there’s no guarantee he will re-sign with the Mets.
Let’s make this perfectly clear: The right-handed power-hitting first baseman wants a lifetime spot with the Mets at Citi Field, Alonso told Sportico in an interview Wednesday in Phoenix, where the Mets were in the midst of a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mets won two of three at Chase Field and could have swept the series, leaving them with a 70-64 record, three games out of the last National League Wild Card spot with only 28 games left to play.
“I’d love the idea of spending the rest of my career with the Mets, because it’s a special place,” he said. “This organization has been home to me. It’s been an incredible life experience, an incredible journey.”
But there have been no talks between baseball operations and his agent Scott Boras, at least none that have been made public. As Alonso nears the top of the Mets’ list in all-time home runs, the clock is ticking, and the days are dwindling.
This week, Alonso took over third place on the Mets career homer list from Mike Piazza at 221, tying him Tuesday night and passing the Hall of Famer Thursday. Darryl Strawberry (252) and David Wright (242) are within easy reach next season, if there is a next season for Alonso in New York.
“Mike was a childhood hero of mine, so tying him was very special,” Alonso said. “He was one of the guys I looked up to a lot when I was a kid. Do I think about that kind of stuff? I think about it all the time, especially in the offseason.”
Especially this offseason.
The 29-year-old Alonso would like some sort of contract akin to Aaron Judge, his crosstown counterpart and captain of the New York Yankees. That implies a long-term deal well north of $300 million.
Judge went into the free agent market two years ago and parlayed an AL-record 62-homer season in 2022 into a nine-year, $360 million deal that will keep him a Yankee for life, or at least through 2031. But Judge never said it was Yankees or bust that offseason, the way Alonso is saying it now. Judge flirted with the San Francisco Giants, and in the end the San Diego Padres, to get his deal done with the Yankees.
Alonso doesn’t seem to have the stomach for that. He could have been traded at the deadline, but that came and went and he remained a Met, a good sign.
“I’d love it to work out [like Judge],” Alonso said. “But I can’t predict the future. It’s been a really great professional environment here where co-workers become your friends and eventually turn into your work family. That’s what it is. This is home away from home for me.”
Alonso has been underpaid during his first six seasons when his contracts have been controlled by the Mets under the auspices of the Basic Agreement, earning a total of $44.8 million. In 2019, when he captured the first of his two MLB Home Run Derby victories, and its million-dollar prize, he virtually doubled his rookie salary of $550,000, then the MLB minimum.
That first derby win also launched what’s become an extensive charity career. Alonso gave $50,000 to the Tunnels for Towers Foundation, which helps the families of first responders who died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack in 2001. He’s continued to donate to first-responder charities, and this season, he’s given $1,000 for each of his 29 homers thus far to animal shelters, veterans’ organizations and groups helping people experiencing homelessness.
“The reason why we started is that we’ve just had a tremendous amount of support and love from New York City,” Alonso said. “And we want to keep doing that.”
Even if he’s no longer in New York.
Unlike the Yankees, the Mets don’t have a history of keeping their star players.
In the Bronx, Judge is following Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, Hall of Famers who all played their entire careers in Yankee pinstripes. Ditto Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada. Even during the modern free agency era, the Steinbrenner family has unloaded the cash register to keep players.
The Mets haven’t had that ethos. With the dawn of free agency in 1977, then-minority owner and chairman M. Donald Grant notoriously traded franchise hero Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds rather than pay to keep him. Seaver ultimately won 311 games and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Of the franchise’s top four home-run hitters, only Wright played his entire career with the Mets. Strawberry and Piazza didn’t. The jury on Alonso is still out. Wright was signed by then owner Fred Wilpon to an eight-year, $138 million contract extension in 2013. But Wright’s 14-year tenure ended prematurely in 2016 because of a serious back injury.
The Mets, under different ownership, find themselves at the crossroads again, this time with Alonso. The current Mr. Met wants to stay put. Owner Steve Cohen will have to decide how much he wants to pay to make that happen, if at all.
