{"id":177206,"date":"2025-09-29T09:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177206\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T09:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:24:07","slug":"pete-alonso-to-opt-out-of-mets-contract-enter-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177206\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Alonso To Opt Out Of Mets Contract, Enter Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Alonso<\/a> is returning to free agency, as the Mets first baseman told the New York Post\u2019s Mike Puma<\/a> and other reporters that he won\u2019t be exercising his player option for the 2026 season.\u00a0 Alonso will instead leave his $24MM salary on the table and head to the open market in search of a longer and more lucrative deal.<\/p>\n

The announcement came just minutes after the Mets\u2019 season-ending 4-0 loss to the Marlins, which officially eliminated New York from postseason contention and put a coda on the club\u2019s devastating second-half swoon.\u00a0 Given the timing, Alonso\u2019s statement adds to the sting of a dismal day for Mets fans, yet there wasn\u2019t much point in Alonso waiting a few more weeks to make what seemed like an obvious decision.\u00a0 Even dating back to when Alonso signed his two-year, $54MM deal last February, there was little doubt that he would be re-entering free agency again this winter.<\/p>\n

Over 709 plate appearance and a full 162 games played, Alonso hit .272\/.347\/.524 with 38 home runs.\u00a0 This is the best batting average Alonso has posted over his seven Major League seasons, as well as his second-best slugging percentage.\u00a0 Alonso\u2019s 141 wRC+ is tied for his second-highest career mark in that category.\u00a0 His 144 wRC+ from his 53-homer rookie year in 2019 remains his career peak, but the 141 number is well above the 121 wRC+ Alonso delivered over the 2023-24 seasons.<\/p>\n

The \u201cPolar Bear\u201d had a lower walk rate in 2025 than in 2024, but he also reduced his strikeout rate.\u00a0 His already-strong hard-hit ball rate jumped up to elite levels, as his 54.3% hard-hit ball rate ranks in the 96th percentile of all batters.\u00a0 It all adds up to a stronger platform year for Alonso than his free agent trip last year, when his market never seemed to gel and he ended up settling for his short-term deal with New York.\u00a0 Alonso is also no longer eligible to receive a qualifying offer, so teams will no longer have to surrender any draft compensation to make a signing.<\/p>\n

Some questions will still linger for potential suitors.\u00a0 Alonso turns 31 in December, and he remains a first base-only player whose limited glovework is rated negatively by public defensive metrics.\u00a0 Several clubs will be wary about making a huge financial commitment to a player in his 30\u2019s who might already be best suited to DH duty, which automatically puts some limits on Alonso\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

Still, Alonso\u2019s power is hard to ignore, and he would provide an immediate jolt to any lineup in search of a hitting upgrade.\u00a0 Agent Scott Boras has a long history of eventually finding his contracts for his clients, even if perhaps they first need to take a shorter-term, opt-out laden deal like Alonso did last winter as a stop-gap.<\/p>\n

Alonso famously turned down a seven-year, $158MM extension offer from the Mets back in 2023 (when Alonso wasn\u2019t represented by Boras), and he has already made $50.5MM over the 2024-25 seasons \u2014 a $20.5MM salary in his final arbitration-eligible year of 2024, and a $20MM salary and $10MM signing bonus in 2025.\u00a0 In that sense, Alonso needs to land a five-year, $107.5MM contract this winter to at least match the money left on the table in that extension offer, and a five\/$107.5 deal certainly seems feasible in the wake of his big 2025 numbers.<\/p>\n

Could another reunion with the Mets be in the offing?\u00a0 While owner Steve Cohen is known to be a big Alonso fan, he was public about his displeasure<\/a> with the nature of negotiations with Alonso\u2019s camp last offseason, and it looked for a while like Alonso would be signing elsewhere.\u00a0 Who knows if any hard feelings may still exist, and this winter, it certainly seems less likely that Alonso will be willing to settle for much below his asking price.\u00a0 If Cohen or president of baseball operations David Stearns continue to hold a hard line on their valuation of an Alonso contract, Alonso\u2019s time in Queens might finally be up.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 collapse could work for or against Alonso\u2019s chances of a return.\u00a0 On the one hand, Alonso was clearly not part of the problem, so Cohen might decide to throw financial caution to the wind to bring back a fan favorite slugger.\u00a0 On the other hand, the Mets might prefer to direct their biggest spending towards their larger need of pitching help, and address first base either with a lower-cost acquisition or an internal answer.\u00a0 Mark Vientos<\/a> looked like a possible in-house replacement at first base after his breakout 2024 campaign, but Vientos\u2019 lackluster 2025 numbers raised several doubts about his viability as a long-term part of New York\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Alonso is returning to free agency, as the Mets first baseman told the New York Post\u2019s Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,1831,85],"class_list":["post-177206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-pete-alonso","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}