When the MLB Free agency period began immediately following the end of the 2024 World Series on October 31, the most hotly pursued free agent was clearly generational slugger Juan Soto, formerly of the New York Yankees. But when Soto signed a record-breaking, 15-year $765 million deal with the New York Mets, a former Met jumped to to the top of the list.
Mets first baseman of the past six years Pete Alonso, now 30 years old, has also been a “generational” talent, at least when it comes to hitting home runs. His total of 53 in 2019 set a new Major League record for a rookie, breaking the rookie mark of 52 set just two years earlier by the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge. The feat earned National League Rookie of the Year honors for Alonso.
Though Alonso has not equalled his rookie homer output since, he has established himself as one of the game’s top power hitters. His career total of 226 round-trippers are the third-highest all-time total for a hitter in his first six seasons. Except for the 2020 season which was truncated to 60 games by the global pandemic, and in which Alonso hit 16 home runs, he has never hit fewer than 34 in a season and has topped 40 twice since his rookie season.
Alonso’s Free Agency Has Been a Bust
So why has Alonso’s free agency turned out to be a bust? In 2023, Alonso reportedly turned his back on an extension offer from the Mets, who made the Tampa, Florida, native a second-round draft pick in 2016, believed to be for $153 million over seven years. Alonso and his agent Scott Boras clearly thought he could do better and by many accounts, expected a contract offer in the neighborhood of $200 million for six or possibly seven years.
No such offer ever materialized. The Mets, according to Andy Martino, baseball correspondent for the SNY cable television network, offered Alonso “a three-year contract that contained opt-outs and included deferred money that would have elevated the total to well over $70 million.”
But Alonso and Boras brushed that one aside as well. Meanwhile, the Mets appear to have moved on.
Now what? Reportedly, the Toronto Blue Jays have made Alonso an offer, with terms not yet revealed. But Alonso and Boras have not jumped on that one either. As a result, the prodigious home run hitter remains without a baseball home just two weeks before he would be scheduled to report to spring training.
Alonso Sticks With Boras Despite Free Agent Debacle
Has Boras been giving Alonso bad advice? New York City sports commentator Evan Roberts of WFAN radio believes so â and he says that Boras should pay a price.
âPete Alonso will soon sign a contract, and soon after…Scott Boras is going to get fired,â Roberts said on the air last week. âHeâs going to get fired because heâs failed Pete Alonso.”
And yet, according to multiple reports, Alonso is standing by Boras despite his free agency debacle.
“MLB agents have recently been informed they cannot contact Pete Alonso,” reported Ben Nicholson-Smith of Canada’s SportsNet. “This would have to be initiated by Alonso himself. Evidently, Alonso wants to continue working with his agent Scott Boras without hearing from other agents looking to poach him.”
Then on Saturday, Austin Owens of Fansided wrote that Alonso is “willing to go down with the Scott Boras ship.”
“Regardless of what the asking price is that Alonso and Boras have settled on, it is obviously too much. It’s fine for Alonso to believe in himself and his worth, but the market clearly disagrees at this point,” Owens wrote. “There’s been no change in strategy, even as suitors disappear and New York shows no signs of backing down on its stance. And even though Alonso remains a free agent this late in the winter, it sure sounds like he is trusting Boras whether he should or not.”
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