{"id":79817,"date":"2025-12-24T02:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/79817\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T02:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:22:09","slug":"jeff-mcneil-found-pete-alonsos-mets-exit-a-bit-surprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/79817\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff McNeil found Pete Alonso’s Mets exit a bit ‘surprising’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A majority of Mets fans were upset by the franchise\u2019s refusal to engage home run leader Pete Alonso in long-term contract talks.<\/p>\n

His close friend and erstwhile teammate, Jeff McNeil, was caught off guard by it, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it definitely was a little bit surprising the Mets weren\u2019t too in on him,\u201d McNeil said Tuesday on a Zoom call, one day after he became the latest Mets player sent out of town<\/a>, traded to the A\u2019s for a minor league pitcher. \u201cI know he\u2019s one of the best first basemen in baseball, and who doesn\u2019t want that on your team? I know he was in some talks with the Orioles, Red Sox, I knew a few other teams were out there who really wanted him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of it, you really want to go to a place you\u2019re truly wanted. For him, I think that was the Orioles. Super-happy he got that deal he wanted. He\u2019s going to have a great year. \u2026 He\u2019s going to go there and mash.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OriolesOrioles first baseman Pete Alonso (25) shakes hands with Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias, as Orioles owner David Rubenstein, left, and sports agent Scott Boras, right, look on during a baseball press conference, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

It has been a stunning offseason in Queens. Alonso left for the Orioles, inking a five-year, $155 million deal<\/a>. The Mets never made him a formal offer. <\/p>\n

McNeil and Brandon Nimmo were traded, and free agent closer Edwin D\u00edaz joined the Dodgers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The core will have a vastly different look in 2026 after the disappointing Mets missed the postseason by one game. It\u2019s fair to wonder if they would\u2019ve operated in the same manner had they reached the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s hard to decide. We missed the playoffs by one game. If we get in the playoffs, are we blowing up the team? Who knows,\u201d the 33-year-old McNeil said. \u201cIt is a business, though, and the Mets decided to go this route, thinking it\u2019s best for them in the long run. I want to wish them the best of luck, but for me, I\u2019m an A now, super-excited to play with this young core. Ready to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first hint for McNeil that he could be on the move came in late November, when Nimmo was dealt to the Rangers for second baseman Marcus Semien. <\/p>\n

Nimmo himself thought he would be a Met for a long time. McNeil got the news Tuesday afternoon from GM David Stearns while he was on the golf course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JeffJeff McNeil of the New York Mets grounds out with a runner in scoring position. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about issues in the clubhouse. The Post reported last month that McNeil and Francisco Lindor had a heated confrontation<\/a> last season following a defensive breakdown in a game against the Phillies on June 20. McNeil didn\u2019t offer much insight into whatever was going on behind closed doors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to speak too much on it. We had a great clubhouse, we got along really well,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like every other clubhouse, stuff is going to happen. It was nothing crazy at all,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

McNeil was positive about his time in Queens. Across eight seasons, he posted a slash line of .284\/.351\/.428 with an OPS of .779, won a batting title in 2022 and was selected to the All-Star team in 2019 and 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst off, I just want to say thank you to everybody in the Mets organization,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were fantastic to me. I really loved my time there, getting drafted by them in 2013 and spending my entire career there. I have a lot of great memories. Love the people there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A majority of Mets fans were upset by the franchise\u2019s refusal to engage home run leader Pete Alonso…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22573,20,9,11,320,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-79817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-jeff-mcneil","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}