Let’s get this out of the way right now: I’ve soured on New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso and I don’t think the team should sign him after the season.
No way am I giving Alonso $350 million-plus to watch him hit .225. And I don’t care if he hits 40 homers and drives in 85 runs.
In between, there’s far too many 2-for-30 and 1-for-25 slumps, including strikeout after strikeout.
Alonso is partly to blame for the Mets’ dropping a boatload of one and two-run games this season. His failure to hit in the clutch is the reason why the Mets find themselves seven games under .500.
I said “partly to blame” above because others like Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo haven’t produced much either.
But McNeil and Nimmo’s contract extensions the team has already doled out weren’t what Alonso is going to demand. No one has thrown any numbers around just yet, but it is believed Alonso will command $350 to $400 million for 10 years in his next deal.
But I don’t want the Mets to fork over that much money to a player who doesn’t deserve it, even if he is a homegrown talent.
Alonso has turned into a modern Dave Kingman, who used to homer or strikeout for the teams he played for, including the New York Mets.
And if you’re a general manager there’s no way you build a franchise around a Dave Kingman-type of guy.
Mets GM David Stearns is well aware of that and that’s the reason why the Mets’ haven’t sat down with Alonso to work on a new deal yet.
Stearns will be better off trading Alonso prior to the deadline for a haul of prospects so the Mets can continue the rebuild that will get them in prime position for a playoff run in 2026.
And while he’s at it, Stearns should send McNeil packing, too, as the 2022 National League batting champ has gone into a two-year funk that has him batting .230 now instead of .330.
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