With free agency just one yr away, New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso has employed agent Scott Boras, reports the New York Post. Boras is after all the sport’s premier consultant with a protracted historical past of securing his shoppers best greenback. Alonso’s future is the largest query dealing with new president of baseball operations David Stearns.
Here’s what Stearns mentioned about Alonso at his introductory press convention previous this week:
“I think the entire package weighs into it. Pete is a great player, he is also good in the clubhouse, and he is also home grown. All of that matters.
“I do know over the summer season there was once some industry hypothesis, and glance I’ll simply say I be expecting Pete to be the Opening Day first baseman subsequent yr. Pete’s crucial member of this workforce, he is crucial member of this group, and I feel we are in point of fact lucky to have him.”
Boras prefers to take his perfect shoppers out into free agency however, in the end, the participant is in fee, and a number of other Boras shoppers have signed extensions to skip free agency, together with Jose Altuve, Xander Bogaerts, and Stephen Strasburg. The Bogaerts and Strasburg contracts had decide out clauses, which they later used to safe better contracts.
The Mets and Alonso have had some extension talks, even though they’re reportedly a ways aside, and his title did pop up in rumors on the industry time limit. He was once attached to the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, specifically. Those two golf equipment may once more display passion this offseason. The San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners are on-paper suits as smartly.
As excellent as Alonso is — and he’s very excellent — righty hitting first basemen with out a lot defensive or baserunning worth normally do not get report contracts. He’s a $100 million participant, simply, even though Alonso and Boras may have a troublesome time discovering $200 million, and even $175 million. That mentioned, Mets proprietor Steve Cohen can come up with the money for any worth, and might wish to make Alonso a profession Met.
Freddie Freeman’s six-year, $162 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers figures to be a benchmark for Alonso, even though Freeman is the simpler participant, and that contract was once in need of his preliminary asks. Boras negotiated large contracts for franchise first basemen Prince Fielder (9 years and $214 million) and Mark Teixeira (8 years and $180 million) greater than a decade in the past.
Alonso, 29 in December, slugged 46 house runs this season, even though his batting line slipped to .217/.318/.504. His 192 profession house runs are fourth in franchise historical past and Darryl Strawberry’s workforce report of 252 homers is definitely inside of succeed in. Alonso earned $14.5 million in 2023 and his wage will have to exceed $20 million via arbitration in 2024.
Cohen and the Mets lately signed Boras shoppers Max Scherzer and Brandon Nimmo to huge contracts, and so they additionally agreed to a deal with Carlos Correa prior to retreating over clinical issues. Correa may be a Boras consumer.