Mets, counterreloj. Retain Pete Alonso or let him go?
Pete Alonso is a fundamental man for Mets’s offensive, what decision will the club make on his first base?
The latest grains on the sand watch are exhausted. The opening of the training fields is getting closer and the fate of Pete Alonso is still uncertain. The New York Mets still meditate but must soon make a decision, in the following days, will show the wallet to keep the initialist in their roster or not. The decision will mark the physiognomy of the team, particularly in the corners of the painting.
Pete Alonso acted in 161 regular seasonal games in the first base, 159 as a start Polar bear ‘remained at the height with the defensive parcels: .995 of the average of Philage, with only seven errors.
The question is, if Alonso does not reach an arrangement with the new baseball operations direction, in the hands of David Stearnswho seeks to reduce the astronomical amounts that the payroll pay franchise, who will be the new custodian of the first base?
The immediate response, said by Stearns himself, is Mark winds, who was the master of the third base, where he acted 108 times in 2024, 103 as a starter; Contrasting with the only four appearances he had in the initial, two of them since the beginning of the game. He did not fail in the 19 interventions he had in the first pad, that is, he ended with 1,000 percentage in a very low share of action in that position.
Without Alonso, the Mets would have winds in the initial and could afford to explore, during the preseason, the work of four other players: Brett Bitch, who has the ability to cover the initial, but has never done so in three seasons in the elderly; The Mexican Joey Meneses, who has a minor leagues contract with the New Yorkers and who has tried his riseing quality, as confirmed by the 387 interventions without error in 50 games last year with the Washington Nationals; The rookie Jared Young, with just 22 experience games between two seasons and Jesse Winker, brought in 2024 of Washington and who is established as a left gardener, but could go down to the picture.
If it is about having a quality ‘Newman’ and a BAT that can contribute to the New York cause (none to the Alonso level), the deck is reduced to one: winds. Alonso had a 2024 that was the worst in the last four years of his career with Mets, with 34 home runs and 88 produced, in addition to .240 average; For its part, winds comes from its best offensive season in three years of race, with 27 homers, 71 driven and .266, except for the average, numbers slightly below Pete. No one offers closer guarantees at this time to METS.
In case that Scott Borasrepresentative of Alonso, reaches an agreement with the METS, it will be interesting to see the adjustments in the table. If this happens, the first base would be for Alonso and now the attention would focus only on the third cushion.
As stated, with Pete back in the ‘Great Apple’, winds would be the titular antealist; However, there is a strong competition: Bitch, Young and Venezuelan Luisangel Acuña could fight strongly at the position in the Spring Training. Luis de los Santos and Ronny Mauricio, a player little respected by injuries.
The manager Carlos Mendoza It will have a large deck of possibilities for the hot corner; But to be sensible, those who bear hand in the position, behind winds, are: Bitch and Acuña.
Bitch is third natural base, with 25 years he has a future in the elderly and looks for a year of consolidation. In 2024, Bally fired four homers and produced 16 races in 50 games; While Acuña, younger brother of four times All Star, Ronald, acted in 14 games last season, stopped his great speed in the bases, fired three homers, two doubles and a triple, produced six races and averaged .308, with More maturity, the youngest of the Acuña is committed to being a star player like his brother, in addition to having great versatility in the painting, because he is able to cover any position.
The Mets gave the biggest coup of authority in the dead season with the hiring of Juan Soto, the greatest fat fish of the free agency who opted for those of Queens instead of staying with the neighbors of the Bronx. There are those who say that two players the size of Soto and Alonso do not fit in the same clubhouse and that, far from benefiting the Mets, the presence of both could harm them.
The truth is that Soto will inject another face to the offensive of the Mets, who, in addition, look like a renewed opening rotation, after consummating the return to the organization of Sean Manaea, the arrival of Frankie Moves, Griffin Canning and Clay Holmes, Those who will combine with Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Paul Blackburn to assemble an opening rotation that perhaps integrates six elements, and the rest presented to strengthen the bullpen with reliefs that could walk long in the game.
METS have a highly relevant decision for their future in 2025. They will surely want to maintain the magic of the OMG And of the ‘magnificent mets’ who traced incredible boards in the last part of the season and the playoffs, but, for now, the decision focuses on whether the ‘polar bear’ will be in his roster or if, for the first time in his Carrera will wear a flannel different from that of New Yorkers.
The sand watch runs out.
