Pete Alonso makes major announcement following Mets’ collapse

Alonso, who turns 31 in December, became an All-Star for the fifth time in seven seasons and broke the Mets' all-time home run record in 2025. The 6-foot-3 slugger played all 162 games for the second year in a row, finishing with a .272/.347/.524 (.871 OPS) slash line, 38 home runs, and 126 RBIs.

Those numbers marked a substantial improvement from his previous campaign, when he posted the highest ground-ball rate of his career (42%) and saw his OPS drop to .788—a career low. While Alonso was instrumental in propelling the Mets to the 2024 NLCS with a .999 OPS in 13 postseason games, the market simply was not there for the power-hitting first baseman.

Alonso remained unsigned until Feb. 5, when he agreed to return to New York on a two-year, $54 million contract after three months of what Mets owner Steve Cohen described as an “exhausting” negotiation process. The deal set a new MLB record for the highest one-year figure by a first baseman ($30 million in 2025) while giving Alonso an opportunity to reset his market.

The first-base landscape has since changed. Just two months after Alonso re-signed, the Toronto Blue Jays gave 26-year-old slugger Vladimir Guerrero a 14-year, $500 million extension, preventing him from reaching free agency this winter. The deal, which is the third-largest in MLB history, reset the market for a position group that has not been highly valued in recent years.

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While Alonso will likely not come close to matching Guerrero’s deal due to his age, his bounce-back year can only help him attract more long-term interest throughout the league. At the very least, he should receive a raise from the $24 million he was set to earn in 2026 if he did not opt out.

The Mets, who committed over $1 billion in free-agent contracts this past year, will enter the offseason with plenty of questions after going 38-55 over their final 93 games to fall one game short of a postseason berth. If Alonso departs, first-base alternatives include lefty-hitting prospect Ryan Clifford and a handful of veteran free agents, including Josh Naylor and Paul Goldschmidt.