Mets star Pete Alonso makes major contract move

Pete Alonso has officially opted out of his contract with the New York Mets, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He declines a $24M player option and heads back to free agency.

Alonso announced that he’d be doing this as soon as the season ended. There was never much intrigue anyhow. Last offseason’s two-year pillow deal was always designed to get him back to the market this winter. He collected $30M for the first season — a $10M signing bonus and $20M salary — and now takes another shot at finding the long-term deal that didn’t materialize last winter.

Pete Alonso is coming off a strong season for New York Mets

The five-time All-Star should be better positioned this time around. He’s coming off a .272/.347/.524 showing with 38 home runs and an NL-leading 41 doubles across 709 plate appearances. Alonso’s 2024 had been a relative down season by his standards, as he’d hit .240/.329/.459 with 34 round-trippers. Last winter also saw his market dragged down by the qualifying offer. That’s not on the table this time. The collective bargaining agreement prevents a player from receiving more than one QO in his career.

Alonso will slot behind Kyle Schwarber and probably NPB superstar Munetaka Murakami as the best power bats in the class. He’s atop the list of free agent first basemen, which also includes Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn, Luis Arraez, Josh Bell, Paul Goldschmidt and Rhys Hoskins. There’ll be teams that prefer Murakami as a first baseman rather than at third base, which has been his primary home with the Yakult Swallows in Japan. Another NBP corner infielder, Kazuma Okamoto, is also coming over via the posting system.

Alonso’s opt-out is one of three resolved option decisions for the Mets so far. Edwin Diaz is also opting out, while A.J. Minter exercised his $11M player option as he works back from lat surgery. They’re still awaiting official word from Frankie Montas, but he’s obviously going to lock in his $17M player option after undergoing elbow surgery in August. The Mets could simply release Montas at that point to open a roster spot, but there’s no escaping the money. The team still has to decide on options for Brooks Raley ($4.75M or a $350K buyout) and Drew Smith ($2M).