How Pete Alonso helped convince Brandon Nimmo to accept trade from Mets to Rangers

The eight-year, $162M contract that outfielder Brandon Nimmo signed to remain with the New York Mets in December 2022 included a full no-trade clause. 

Thus, he could have made things difficult for Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns after Stearns agreed to trade Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for second baseman Marcus Semien this past offseason. 

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday ahead of the Rangers' game at the New York Yankees, Nimmo revealed that he reached out to former teammate Pete Alonso and others before deciding on relocating to Texas. 

Brandon Nimmo: Chat with Pete Alonso was "a piece of the puzzle" for accepting the trade to the Rangers

"When Pete said [the Mets] hadn’t even reached out to him, there was definitely a lot of uncertainty as to which direction they were going," Nimmo explained, per Alex Smith of SNY. "But ultimately, I had to make other phone calls and talk to other people and deliberate over it for many more days. So, it wasn’t just his conversation that went into it. I talked to dozens of people. It was just a piece of the puzzle that helped in the decision-making process." 

Nimmo was referencing how the Mets never extended a formal offer to Alonso before he signed a five-year, $155M contract to join the Baltimore Orioles in December. Like Nimmo, Alonso was a homegrown Met who was often mentioned as a potential future captain for the big league club.

Last summer, the "Polar Bear" became the franchise's all-time home run king, but Stearns clearly was unmoved by how Mets fans felt about Alonso after the club failed to reach the postseason in 2025. 

Brandon Nimmo had this one Pete Alonso wish

"I obviously would have loved to have seen Pete retire in a Mets uniform," Nimmo added during his comments. "He’s the Mets’ home run king and has all these titles that go along with it. I think that would have been awesome, but it wasn’t in the cards for what they felt like were the best baseball decisions."

Nimmo insisted that his being traded had nothing to do with an alleged rift in the clubhouse that supposedly impacted the 2025 Mets. Perhaps Mets fans will one day get the full story regarding why Stearns dismantled the core of the club's roster just one year after the Amazins played in the National League Championship Series.