As the MLB offseason officially gets underway, contract negotiations across the league will commence as teams look to fill and retool their rosters. Superagent Scott Boras will be a very busy man for the next five months and he's eyeing an extension for one of his newest clients, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso.
Alonso is entering his final year under team control in 2024 and will be a free agent after the season. The Mets can negotiate with him exclusively until then and it seems like Boras is keen on getting a deal done that makes Alonso the highest-paid first baseman in the league.
That title currently belongs to Freddie Freeman, who signed a six-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $162 million in 2022. Boras said the current first baseman deals are different from Alonso's case.
“I don’t think those recent contracts, certainly negotiated by others, are really relevant to anything that has to do with what’s going to happen in the future,” Boras said, via Dan Martin. “Particularly with Pete Alonso.”
Will the Mets extend Alonso?
The Mets have not been shy to shell out some dough during Steve Cohen's tenure as owner. With David Stearns in the baseball operations driver's seat, he could be given a blank checkbook to use this winter and continue New York's trend of spending money.
It doesn’t appear Pete Alonso will take a hometown discount knowing that the Mets have the money. Even if they can’t actively negotiate with other teams, Boras likely knows what he can get Alonso in free agency and will use that as leverage with the Mets.
Boras is always open to talking with a team even if a deal doesn’t get finalized in every conversation.
“We welcome all offers,’’ Boras said. “We certainly present them [and] discuss them with the players we represent and we really try to have as open a dialogue as we can and also have an exchange of information, because … even if you don’t get a deal done, it helps the parties understand one another. So we invite negotiations, we invite discussions [and] we invite offers.’’
Even if Alonso hits free agency, the Mets have a chance of retaining him. One team rumored to be interested in Alonso is the Milwaukee Brewers, but would Alonso leave the Mets for the team Stearns just walked away from? That becomes an even bigger question if Craig Counsell, Milwaukee's manager, joins the Mets in the same position.
Pete Alonso certainly shouldn’t be in a rush to sign an extension knowing he will probably net more money on the open market. Players like the security though and if there's one agent who takes care of his clients, it's Scott Boras.
Unless the Mets intend on tearing it all down and going into a rebuild, which appears very unlikely, there's no reason to believe they won’t extend Alonso. Steve Cohen's bank account is again about to take a nine-figure hit.
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