Ahead of the 2025 season, the biggest debate among Mets fans was the return of Pete Alonso. While many fans felt that his asking price for a contract was too high given the skill set that he brings to the game and his perceived decline over the past few seasons, there was an equal or larger part of the fan base that wanted to retain one of the key Mets of the past decade. When the dust settled, Alonso signed a two-year, $54 million dollar contract with a opt-out after the 2025 season.
This move was
beneficial to both sides. Alonso put up a 141 wRC+ with 38 home runs, 41 doubles, and 136 RBIs and more than did his part to give the Mets a chance to make the playoffs. The Mets also got to celebrate a new all-time home run record for the club, and milked every ounce of baseball and public relations out of Alonso for the season. Alonso, in turn, was able to re-establish himself as one of the best offensive first basemen in all of baseball and set himself up for a big contract when he inevitably opted out.
For the second straight season, Alonso played in all 162 games this season, and continued to be a very, very good hitter. How good? Per Statcast/Baseball Savant, Pete was 96th percentile on Batting Run Value, scoring over 85% in Expected Weighted On-Base Average, Expected Batting Average, Expected Slugging Percentage, Average Exit Velocity, Barrel Percentage, Hard-Hit Percentage, Launch Angle Sweet Spot, and Bat-Speed.
For a fanbase that has been desperate for offensive superstars over their pitching-rich history, Alonso now sits atop their all-time home run record and is in the top ten in bWAR (tenth, 23.3), slugging percentage (third, .516), OPS (sixth, .857), runs scored (eighth, 580), total bases (fifth, 1942), RBIs (third, 712), extra-base hits (fourth, 455), and hits by pitch (first, 100). If he plays another few years at this approximate level, he will climb even higher on those lists, as well as show up in the all-time hits, doubles, and at-bats/plate appearances lists. Simply put, Alonso’s combination of power and health has made him among the most valuable offensive players in franchise history.
However, his defense is not very valuable. While he was never John Olerud or Keith Hernandez at first base, Alonso has continued to slide down the defensive rankings. Alonso’s Outs Above Average was a staggering -9 for 2025. He’s slightly better with arm strength and foot speed, but still near the worst in the league in all three of those categories. The one thing that Alonso is very well suited for at first base is stretching/picking, which is an important part of the game, but isn’t important enough to make up for all of the deficiencies that happen elsewhere at first base.
Now obviously, the Mets could shift Pete to the designated hitter role, but that’s a crowded space both today and in the future. With neither Juan Soto nor Brandon Nimmo very good in the outfield and Mark Vientos without a real position, Alonso at first base makes the most sense right now, which means that if the Mets do re-sign him (without moving Nimmo or Vientos), they’re signing up for poor defense at first.
But even if somehow the other positions work themselves out, the Mets can’t sign up for too many years of this defense at first, and that’s where the contract issues really come into play. Alonso is reportedly seeking a seven-year contract in free agency. Alonso is 30, so the length isn’t so crazy in terms of where many players wrap up their careers, but for someone who is already at the bottom of the defensive spectrum with the richest player in team history breathing down his neck for the DH spot as well, there’s not a lot of good options here.
The optimistic take would be to say that, hopefully, with more consistent infield defense (the Mets used a lot of players at second and third this season), Pete could stick at first for another two or three seasons at roughly this same level and, hopefully, transition to DH as Soto perhaps transitions to first, with him following to DH once Alonso’s contract is up. And maybe if the money blows him away, you can limit Alonso to five guaranteed years and some options for the last two seasons. That seems much more palatable to the club side, but Alonso and his agent, the always reasonable and measured Scott Boras, are going to rightly try to maximize his value, both in terms of years and dollars.
There are plenty of times when the desires of the fanbase and the desires of the front office clash, but there have been few examples as start as this over the past decade or so for the Mets. Alonso is a fan-favorite for good reason, but the DH logjam and the defensive picture make for a tough fit, even for a beloved player. That’s not to say the Mets won’t or shouldn’t re-sign Alonso, but with David Stearns wanting to put run-prevention at a premium in 2026 and an agent known to go above and beyond for his players, it isn’t a sure-fire decision.
