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The Mets made what they perceived as a last-ditch effort to sign Pete Alonso by offering him a three-year contract in the $68 million to $70 million range and, when that was rejected, began their pivot away from their slugging first baseman, The Post has learned.
The first step was to add another bat by re-signing Jesse Winker for one year at $7.5 million.
They now will try to bolster their ‘pen by playing at the top of the relief market, and the No. 1 asset available is lefty Tanner Scott.
The Mets did not send out a statement that the Alonso Era was done. But they have come to believe – without some unexpected late reversal — that it is.
The Alonso camp had made the Mets a three-year proposal with average annual values way beyond where the Mets were comfortable going.
So the Mets countered with an offer that would be worth more than three years at $60 million at which Christian Walker signed with the Astros this offseason.
This bid included opt-outs for Alonso that if he rejected and stayed would have carried the offer at least slightly beyond $70 million.
But Alonso was looking for more and the Mets came to believe the gap was going to just be too great to close.
Thus, they signed Winker to a deal that could rise to $9 million if he hits all of his bonuses.
The current plan is to shift Mark Vientos to first base and have Luisangel Acuña, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio vie for third base.
The Mets will hope Juan Soto, in particular, and a full season of Winker helps offset any loss of Alonso’s might.
And they will try to be stronger elsewhere by capitalizing on a free agent relief market that has mainly not moved.
Besides Scott, Carlos Estevez, Kenley Jansen, David Robertson and Kirby Yates remain among the many still available.
The Mets had informed Alonso’s camp in recent days that time was short to make an agreement because the organization did not want to miss out on other opportunities waiting for the slugger to decide if he would accept the team’s offer.
The Mets, with Billy Eppler then as general manager, had made a seven-year, $158 million extension offer to Alonso in June 2023.
He rejected. Since then, David Stearns took over baseball operations. Stearns does not like to give weighty contracts to players in their thirties, especially non-athletic corner players, and he emphasizes defense.
That led to the Mets changing their view on how to proceed with Alonso, a fan favorite who sits third all-time in franchise homers with 226.
Alonso now is very likely to end up elsewhere. The Blue Jays, who have had difficulty recruiting big-name players to Canada and have a huge hunger to reverse that, are seen as a strong contender now in the Alonso sweepstakes. If the Blue Jays sign Alonso, they can pair him with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with Guerrero moving to his original third base and/or flip-flopping first and DH at-bats with Alonso.
