Let’s start with second things first I will get to Pete Alonso further down:
People always are as thrilled with Tylor Megill as 2 day-old leftovers.
Well, I like 2 day leftovers, and I like Tylor Megill, so why, not once and for all, make him a reliever?
Ex-Mets reliever Trevor May began his career as a starter, but pitched most of it in relief. How did he do as a starter versus a reliever?
I add a rating to help you assess both, in case you're bad with numbers:
Starter: 7-15, 5.85 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 127 IP, 8.1 K/9 (BAD)
Reliever: 29-13, 3.60 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 323 IP, 11.3 K/9 (GOOD)
Mountainous righty Bryce Montes de Oca.
I know Megill has been spotty in relief, but I believe that after a fierceness adjustment to make him look like Bryce Montes de Oca (pictured above), Megill can be "reliever Trevor May II" - whaddya think, Pilgrims?
WHO PETE SHOULD BE MAD AT
“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?”
Read this Thursday evening in Mets Trade Rumors....
The Mets and Pete Alonso have been in a staredown for a while but it seems the club is blinking. Andy Martino of SNY reports that they now expect him to sign elsewhere, with today’s agreement with Jesse Winker part of a plan to spread money around to various alternatives.
Then this:
“New York agreed to bring back Jesse Winker on a $7.5MM deal. He’ll slot in at designated hitter and/or as a left-handed bench bat.”
I personally am EXCITED to have Jesse coming back! If I had a batting helmet handy, I’d slam that sucker to the ground, Jesse Winker style, and start screaming in celebration.
But…
Who should departing Pete be mad at? Several folks….
1) Himself - for not signing the extension last year.
2) Boras - for possibly talking him out of signing last year's extension?
3) Mets, MLB and the Players Union - how so?
MLB and the Union agreed to rules with free agent status terms that greatly benefit those who make the majors at a very young age, like Juan Soto, who became a free agent for his age 26 season.
JUAN…HIT….THE…JACKPOT!
But other guys may not hit free agency until after they turn 30 - like Pete - or 32, like Jeff McNeil would have if he had not signed an extension. I am sure both would have loved it where if you turn 28 in the upcoming season, you become a free agent that year.
Yes, Pete did not get to the big leagues sooner, but sometimes it is not your fault. He had a broken hand via HBP in his minor league debut season in 2016 that cost him several weeks, then again in early 2017 where he lost several more weeks, or he most likely would have been ready by mid-2018 and got credited with another year and turned free agent a year earlier.
Pete has "only" made $44 million in his 6 season career so far, which is less in total than the 2025 Soto $$ season.
The club, in Alonso, has had a real bargain, given his output.
Also, many clubs like the Braves extend their marquis players early on (e.g., the Atlanta Braves), given them more $ for extra years. The Mets could have given Pete 8 years for $150 million after his outstanding rookie season, but they did not, probably due to Wilpon penny pinching, so he had to hope he would not suffer a disabling injury along the way that would have deep-sixed his free agency cash-in.
Fortunately for him, he has stayed healthy.
Sometimes, a club could arbitrarily hold you back a season - you'd be good enough to be playing for 20 or more other clubs, but YOUR team is stocked at your position and you don't get called up.
My off-the-wall suggestion?
Let every player with at least 1 year experience turn free agent for their age 28 season. But you get a 10% haircut for every year of service you didn't accrue up to that point. So, if you turn 28 and could get $150 million if you were now a full service free agent, but you've only gotten 4 years of service in, not 6, you get 80% of that $150 million, or $120 million. If you only had one year of service, you could sign a $50 million deal, but being 5 years short of traditional free agency, you would get 50% of that, or $25 million. You’d almost undoubtedly realize in that scenario that you’d be better off staying with your team, but you would at least have the option.
General idea here, that I have just laid out...I could get more wonky with hypotheticals, but I won't.
Basically, under current rules, if another player with half Pete's talent made it to the majors 3 or 4 years earlier, and was able to hit free agency now at 26 or 27, because there is less age-related decline risk, that player may get more in total career earnings than Pete. Seems unfair.
Pitchers? I think of how Zack Wheeler got credit for his injured year and two partial seasons (he missed that one season altogether, and in 2 others, he had under 100 innings) and hit free agency with only 749 Mets innings under his belt before his big payday at age 29.
It seems he should perhaps have had some sort of haircut off his free agent contract for time missed. Another pitcher at the same time could have logged 1000 innings in his first 5.5 seasons, never missing starts, then got a major career-altering injury and missed out on free agency altogether. And make far less in his career than Wheeler.
Just some thoughts on how free agency rules end up greatly enriching some while perhaps stiffing others. Matt Harvey? He got stiffed.
I wish Pete Alonso well in his future endeavors, assuming he no longer being in the Mets’ pursuit.
He has been a great Met.
And if I was Pete, and saw Soto get $765 million, and I got offered just $76.5 million, or thereabouts, I'd be more than a tad insulted.
But that is in part due to the existing rules.
Now…will Joey Meneses show up to platoon vs. lefties, as Winker tackles righties? Or Winker at DH? We will see.
Lastly, Jon Heyman of the Post wrote that The Mets are heavily focused on adding to the bullpen, perhaps with Tanner Scott. As you may recall, a week or two back, I pointed out that the Cleveland guardians bullpen was so much better than the Mets bullpen in 2024 that if the Mets had Cleveland’s bullpen in 2024 instead, they would’ve won 10 more games.
So I recommended at the time the Mets consider not keeping Pete and using the cash in building a killer bullpen instead, and then going after Vlad Guerrero. We will see if that turns out to be the strategy. I think it’s one that makes a lot of sense.
13 comments:
I agree with your recommendations. Will miss Pete, though.
I'm petered out discussing this and I will leave his final destination to Boras and Stearns to discuss
I guess there will be no “Rinse and Re-Pete”
BP BP BP and Iggy. Pete blew his chance and lets face it if he hadn't hit that homer off the Brew crew would we still be having this "gotta have Pete" discussion?
Pete's a grown man and he can make whatever decision he wants and live with it. To feel insulted making millions and millions of dollars is ludicrous. These guys should try working a real job for forty to fifty years . Spoiled rotten
Gonna miss pete but this does open up a lot of options.
I'm going to assume Vientos moves to first. He defense should be better there than 3rd and with a little experience probably better than Pete. His arm certainly will be.
This opens up 3B for tryouts. Maybe this is the time that Baty can finally stick and bring it all together. If McNeil is hitting well at 2B and Baty isn't producing at 3rd maybe Acuna plays at 3rd. There are multiple people knocking at the door for 2nd or 3rd base internally.
Sign Scott and Stanek for the pen and bring Iggy back at infield insurance / mentor / team vibes as well. I'd be good going into next year with this.
Now... Vladdy jr... I would trade a king's ransom only if we had a 2 day extension window like we did with Santana back in the day. If we could trade / extend I'd go with that.
Gents, great points. I think Iggy would give them a floor at 3rd base. We don’t need Baty, Acuna, and Marino going .220/.280/.320 there, or we can kiss the playoffs goodbye. Iggy did hit .340, didn’t he?
If Pete leaves, I'd leave Vientos at 3B and sign Santander to play 1B until we see if we can snag Vlad in November. Then, when Martes leaves, Santander can move to DH for the remaining year or 2 on his contract.
BTW, what's the latest status of MdeO?
Pete is a good player, not a great player IMO. He's actually a bit of a one trick pony (power....see Dave Kingman) that wants to get paid like the best first baseman in baseball, when he is simply not that guy. He should have taken the extension offered to him in 2023, but he chose not to (a mistake in hindsight).
The current free agent market will dictate his value, and if that doesn't match up with what he thinks he is worth then the "blame" falls solely on his own shoulders.
I thank Pete for his contributions to the Mets and I wish him well in his future endeavors.
Vlad would make this lineup top 3 in MLB, but they’ll want a haul for him (start with Jett and Tong) for a 1-year rental. Trading for him now would almost require you to extend him to make it worthwhile, and while Vlad is going to want a 10+ year,$450m+ contract, Stearns’s philosophy and history show that he’s unlikely to want to tie up big (very big) money and years for a non-athletic RH corner bat into his late 30’s. And he’s right about this, and already has one (and Soto is both younger and more athletic than Vlad.)
Unless/until we trade Marte, there are only two spots left on the 26. One almost certainly has to play 1B, and the other needs to be a backup IF. This is why I think they’ll do whatever they can to move Marte and replace that spot with someone who can play somewhere besides (or in addition to) OF/DH.
Corbin Burnes took “less” money to be on the D Backs. Alonso could do the same if he really wanted to return to the Mets. If 3 years is the contract offered, he will still be able to earn millions when that contract expires.
Martin, I hear ya, but Pete has to feel that compared to Soto, he is on the rack marked "Final Sale: Huge Markdowns" - but think of all the taxes he won't owe.
It is being reported that the Mets have signed relief pitcher A.J. Minter to a 2 year $22 million contract. We are now seeing some predicted moves happening.
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