This past Saturday, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen publicly acknowledged that contract talks with free-agent first baseman and Mets fan-favorite Pete Alonso have been “an exhausting” process.
It seems Cohen isn’t yet ready to completely move on from the 30-year-old slugger.
“No more than 48 hours after publicly lamenting the seemingly endless saga…Cohen was back in conversation with Alonso’s camp,” Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Tuesday night.
MLB Network analyst Jim Duquette suggested recently that “Cohen may have to eventually jump in” regarding the contract discussions with Alonso and big-name agent Scott Boras. While it was later said that Cohen was “fully supportive of” what Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns had previously offered Alonso, that was before both Cohen and Stearns heard directly from paying customers who made it known during a Saturday fan event they want the “Polar Bear” to remain with what’s been his only club since he made his MLB debut in 2019.
Numerous stories throughout the winter have linked Alonso with the Toronto Blue Jays, but both Duquette and MLB insider Andy Martino have noted the Blue Jays will have a “tough” time bettering the Mets’ offer after Toronto agreed to a five-year deal worth at least $92.5M with outfielder Anthony Santander. Martino mentioned during Monday’s edition of the SNY “Baseball Night in New York” program that “there’s no reason for the Mets to rush” since it’s clear no other team is in a hurry to lock Alonso down via a lucrative multi-year deal.
Perhaps Alonso has seen the writing on the wall.
“It feels like Alonso desperately hopes to return, while the Mets could go either way,” Heyman shared in his latest update.
Alonso’s camp recently rejected a three-year proposal from the Mets that reportedly had opt-outs and was worth “more than $70M” with deferred money included. With that said, The Athletic’s Will Sammon pointed out on Tuesday that “a reunion with Alonso still makes sense” because the Amazins “have a hole at first base” and in the lineup following the historic offseason signing of All-Star outfielder Juan Soto.
“It’s fair to say the Mets have already ‘won’ the negotiation,” Heyman added in his piece. Assuming Alonso agrees with that assessment, it sounds like he and Cohen could come to terms on a deal sooner than some thought as of Tuesday afternoon.
