Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Pete Alonso\u2019s meeting with Mets officials in Tampa two weeks ago pushed him toward a return with the club, but his desire for a reunion was also stoked elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of guys that were keeping in contact with me,\u201d Alonso said Monday, referring to Mets players. \u201cSo it just wasn\u2019t that meeting. It\u2019s guys that I shared a locker room with. It just feels really good to have the respect and be like, \u2018Hey, this guy is not only a great clubhouse guy, he can help us win.\u2019 To have that support of guys you have been around a long time means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon Nimmo, Jesse Winker, Sean Manaea, Francisco Lindor and Ryne Stanek were among the players that provided such reinforcement, according to Alonso, who agreed to a two-year contract worth $54 million (with an opt-out after this season). <\/p>\n
It ended what team owner Steve Cohen had previously termed an \u201cexhausting\u201d negotiation.<\/p>\n
Alonso on Monday participated in drills on the field with teammates for the first time this spring as the Mets held their initial full-squad workout in camp.<\/p>\n
As The Post reported in detail, Cohen and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns traveled to Tampa earlier this month for a three-hour meeting with Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, at a social club to which the first baseman belongs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect that so much and I appreciate that, dealing with people face-to-face like that,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cIt was good to kind of hear their perspective and voice mine and here we are, back at it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso, 30, wasn\u2019t helped in free agency by receiving a qualifying offer from the Mets \u2014 any other team that signed him would have had to surrender a draft pick. <\/p>\n
Alonso was also coming off a season in which he produced a career-low .788 OPS. <\/p>\n
His 34 homers were also a career low for a full season.<\/p>\n
But Alonso noted his satisfaction in \u201cpushing the market forward\u201d in that his $30 million salary for this season (which includes a $10 million signing bonus) will be the highest for a first baseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a win,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cBut also I couldn\u2019t expect something incredibly megalong because I didn\u2019t have my best year. In (2023), I didn\u2019t have my best year, either. The two years stacked up, I didn\u2019t really play to my potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso said he doesn\u2019t regret shunning a long-term extension before hitting free agency: The Mets offered $158 million over seven years during the 2023 season, according to The Post\u2019s Joel Sherman.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery step of my career, whether it\u2019s high school, college, minor leagues, even through my six [MLB] years, it\u2019s been you bet on yourself whether you have a contract or not,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cYou have to fight, you have to play and whether you are on a long-distance contract or not, not playing well isn\u2019t fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Pete Alonso\u2019s meeting with Mets officials in Tampa two weeks ago pushed him toward a return with the club, but his desire for a reunion was also stoked elsewhere. \u201cThere were a lot of guys that were keeping in contact<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211032,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030\/revisions\/211032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}