Orioles' Pete Alonso reflects on what went wrong for 2025 Mets

Part of New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns dismantling the core of the club's roster following the Mets' collapse last season involved never extending a formal offer to fan-favorite first baseman Pete Alonso before Alonso signed a five-year, $155M contract to join the Baltimore Orioles.

For a piece produced by Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun that was published on Monday, Alonso reflected on all that did and/or didn't go wrong for the Mets during the second half of the 2025 campaign. 

Pete Alonso: 2025 Mets suffered a "slow bleed" during collapse

"The 2025 Mets lost the season by — they missed the playoffs by one game," Alonso explained. "But there was so many little things that happened consistently, where it’s just a little thing here, a little thing there. … But then that turned into that kind of slow bleed, slow bleed, slow bleed over time where it shouldn’t come down to the last day because if certain things were to change, or certain plays were made, or certain whatever, then it doesn’t happen."

Alonso was referencing how the Mets missed the playoffs after they suffered a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins on the final day of the regular season. Of course, nine innings of baseball aren't the biggest reason a club that ended June 12 with a record of 45-24 spent October watching postseason games instead of participating in them. 

Back in 2023, a rumor surfaced claiming that "issues in [the Mets] clubhouse" resulted in the club allegedly making Alonso "available" before that year's trade deadline. More recently, outfielder Juan Soto and star shortstop Francisco Lindor didn't exactly deny in February that clubhouse problems impacted the Mets throughout the last three-and-a-half months of the 2025 season. 

Francisco Lindor, Carlos Mendoza tell Orioles what they're getting in Pete Alonso

"Pete’s amazing; great guy," Lindor recently said about his now-former teammate. "He’s going to be a great team leader. He’s going to be a guy that prepares day in and day out. Going to be very few guys that can out-prepare him, and he posts up every single day. He’s amazing, and he’s a great guy, great teammate. I love him; he’s like a brother."

That love clearly meant nothing to Stearns as it related to Alonso possibly remaining a one-club man through the bulk of the slugger's prime. Fair or not, some understandably may wonder if Stearns truly viewed Alonso as more part of the problem than as somebody who could have helped to fix whatever negatively affected the Mets last year. 

"How much he takes pride of being in the lineup and playing 162, that right there will send a message to everyone," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza added about Alonso. "People have no idea. There were days where I didn’t think he was going to be able to play, and he’s like, ‘I’ll be in there at 7.’ I saw it from the very first day that I took this job. He leads by example, but then he’s not afraid to talk to people when he needs to."

Only time will tell if the Mets will miss the type of leadership that Alonso provided from 2019 through 2025.