After an improved 2025 campaign, more teams are biting on Alonso as opposed to last offseason. The Mets have several holes on their roster they need to address, potentially leaving them unlikely to match an opposing team’s contract offer. Alonso’s final days in Queens may have already been played, and Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer thinks this is the case.
“The Mets’ official position on Alonso, at least per the words of president of baseball operations David Stearns, is that the team would ‘love’ to have him back,” Rymer wrote in a recent article.
“As well they should. Alonso has only ever known the Mets organization since the club drafted him in the second round in 2016. And even if the purported goal of this winter is to improve run prevention, the Nimmo-for-Semien trade did that while simultaneously worsening the depth of the lineup.”
Losing Alonso this offseason would sting more than it would have last year. The potential replacement for Alonso at first base, Mark Vientos, failed to build upon his breakout 2024 campaign. Instead, his OPS dropped from .837 to .702, and he finished with a -0.2 WAR.
The Alonso decision is entirely in the hands of Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns. New York has shown no signs of issues handing out large sums of money in the past, but it’s been different with Alonso. The team seems unwilling to sign Alonso to a deal closer to his market value, instead hoping that the market dries out, forcing a return on a team-friendly deal.
It worked last offseason, but it may not be the case this year. Rumors about a Red Sox-Alonso pairing have been swirling for months now, and the Mets haven’t yet done anything to put an end to the rumors. They could very well be left with Vientos at first base for the foreseeable future.
