NY Mets: Team must make Pete Alonso contract a priority this offseason

The 2023 New York Mets have seen a ton of heartbreak and anguish happen in just a few months, in fourth place at 51-62 at .461 with a team of rookies and underperformers. Here’s why the team must offer first baseman Pete Alonso the huge contract he respectfully deserves.

Alonso, 28, has done a phenomenal job for a team so desperately needing an offensively gifted leader and defensive standout as well. To say that Alonso has been helpful would be an understatement, he simply has been the leader the team relies on and given the team everything he’s got, exceeding expectations. Let’s take a look.

Alonso wowed in 2019, arguably his best so far in his 5 year career here in the big apple. In 2019, he won the NL Rookie of the Year award with 53 home runs, 120 RBIs, a .260 batting average, and a .358 OBP.

That’s simply insane, those numbers. Not to mention he was just a rookie at the time.

While he would go on to win the home run derby two times and following up with quite a few more impressive years such as last year. During the 2022 season he hit a whopping 40 home runs, 131 RBIs, had a .271 batting average, and a .352 OBP.

So far this season, he’s coming very close to matching that one, he’s got 34 home runs thus far, 85 RBIs and a .226 batting average.

Pete Alonso very well could test the market in free agency this offseason. However, this would be so detrimental to the team to let him slip away. He’s at the end of his 1 year, $14,500,000 base salary 14,500,000 guaranteed contract, and the team should consider making this a number one priority. Offer him whatever he wants, and I do feel he respectfully deserves the captain role, he is the leader the team needs and the younger guys can easily gravitate towards his admirable work ethic and fun personality in the clubhouse.

To put things into perspective, the team cannot afford to lose a player of Alonso’s caliber. The team is bad enough with him, without the offensively gifted slugger and sharp defender at first base that is often underlooked and not appreciated enough, things would only get worse.