Latest on Alonso

Posted by: Patrick Gorman 1/3/2025

We are now at the point where the off-season is going at snail's pace. The days are shorter and the weather is horrible and yet we still have roughly a couple hundred free agents who do not have a home. One of them happens to be homegrown Met slugger Pete Alonso. Alonso is coming off a down year to his standards and it came at the worst possible time with 2024 being his platform year. In 2024, Pete Alonso had a slash line of .240/.329/.459 with 34 HRs (career low) and a .788 OPS (also a career low).

After turning down a seven-year deal, $158M in the summer of 2023 it is certainly looking like Alonso is looking to exceed those numbers, especially with the hiring of the controversial agent Scott Boras. This seems to be the case. USA Today's reporter Bob Nightengale heard that Boras is using the nine-year, $214M contract that Prince Fielder signed as the comparison of what Pete Alonso should get on the open market. My initial reaction to this news is shocking. My reason for my reaction is because it is not fair to compare Pete Alonso's free agency to Prince Fielder's.

For starters, Prince Fielder hit free agency at a much younger age than Pete Alonso. Fielder hit free agency at the age of 28 while Alonso is hitting free agency at the age of 30. It is so hard for free agents at the age of 30 or older, especially first basemen, to get long -term deals because of the trend of players who decline in their 30s. My other reason for my reaction is that Prince Fielder was an all around better player than Pete Alonso. If you compare both players by their ages 24-29 season Fielder has Alonso in almost every category except for stolen bases and home runs. Scott Boras thinking that this is a fair comparison for what Pete should get is borderline insane which makes me think Pete will be out there for a long time unless he is open for a short-term deal with opt outs.