Peter Alonso
Old friend, Michael Mayer of MMO and MMN, reports the New York Mets have reached out to Willy Adames to see if he would switch to third base for the New York Mets. For his part, Adames seems amenable to the switch.
Adames, 29, is in the prime of his career. Over the past four seasons, he’s been a 3+ WAR player, and he’s had a 119 wRC+ or better in three of the past five years.
Looking deeper at the stats at Baseball Savant, his strikeout rate has been steadily decreasing while his walk rate has been improving. His exit velocities and barrels are consistent with his sweet spot rates improving.
Defensively, he can still play short. Thats important because as we saw with Francisco Lindor’s back, it’s good to have a real backup shortstop option. Being fair, Luisangel Acuña did a great job, but if he’s going to be an everyday player for the Mets, he’s obviously going to need a position change.
That said, we did see Adames go from a 10 and 16 OAA at SS to a 1 in 2024. That was more in line with the negative OAAs he posted with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Looking at the whole picture, he has a strong arm and moves well to his right. That would allow Lindor to play up the middle more to compensate for his not moving as well up the middle and his weaker arm for the position.
Having Adames and Lindor on the left side of the infield promises to be the Mets best left side of the infield since it was manned by Rey Ordoñez and Robin Ventura. This helps with run prevention and makes their pitching staff stronger.
This also improves the defense by moving Mark Vientos from third to first. Even with Vientos’ defensive strides, he was still a -5 OAA there. Truth is, long term, he needs to move to first.
Yes, this would all hurt because it means losing Pete Alonso. However, when all is said and done, the Mets infield and team is better with Adames over Alonso. That’s not said with any enthusiasm, and it’s still true even if it will be a deeply unpopular opinion.
Again, if you want to blame someone here, blame the Wilpons. Alonso should’ve been a Met in 2025.
Stearns is going to value run prevention. Adames does that far better than Alonso. Adames’ 119 wRC+ will offset losing Alonso’s 122. Truth is, Adames is the better and more complete player.
The Mets should forward and sign Adames because it makes the Mets better. It moves them closer to winning the World Series. Adames is the better option as much as it hurts to admit.
Back in 2019, the Wilpons hired Brodie Van Wagenen as GM. Knowing what we know now, their previous financial situation was going to force them to sell, and Van Wagenen’s directive was apparently to get the Wilpons a World Series trophy with zero regard to the future of the franchise.
During this time, Van Wagenen strip mined the Mets farm system. Most of the trades made zero to no sense. Who else remembers the Keon Broxton trade?
Worse than any of that was putting Pete Alonso on the Opening Day roster.
We heard the platitudes. You do the right thing. You can’t risk losing games in April while Alonso is in Vegas. Your owe your fans the best possible roster with the best 25 players.
It sounded good, but like most things with the Wilpons, it was pure BS. They were lying, and they didn’t care about the long term ramifications because they wouldn’t own the team then.
Yes, Alonso being up at the beginning of the season allowed Alonso to break Aaron Judge’s rookie home run record. It certainly helped Alonso win Rookie of the Year.
Make no mistake. This all meant a lot to Mets fans at the time. Alonso deserved all of it. Still, it made little to no sense.
Remember at that trade deadline, the Wilpons (shockingly) went cheap and did not address the bullpen or the bench. The Washington Nationals would, and they would beat out the Mets for the Wild Card en route to winning the World Series.
The Mets were “all-in” when it came to Robinson Cano. They were all-in when it came to giving up a year of control to Alonso. They weren’t all-in when it came to finishing the roster at the trade deadline.
Those two weeks are bow proving far more damaging than we ever could have imagined.
Right now, Alonso should be locked in for the 2025 season as the first baseman. They could’ve had the luxury of having him securely in place as the Mets worked around the edges to make this a World Series contending roster.
Instead, they have to address Alonso and his power production while sureing up their rotation, bullpen, and outfield.
It’s not like the Steve Cohen led Mets haven’t tried. They offered Alonso a seven year $158 million extension. Alonso, now represented by Scott Boras, turned it down.
The Mets tried, but Alonso wanted more. There is no blame here on either side. That goes double with Alonso, who will likely only get one true crack at free agency.
Just remember, the Mets are in this spot because of the Wilpons. Instead of Alonso and Juan Soto, the Mets may be in an either/or situation. Worse yet, they may not sign either player.
This has also created the unfortunate circumstance of having to debate the merits of keeping Alonso. It feels dirty and wrong to point out he’s lost some exit velocity and barrels.
He’s a player who is leaving his peak, and you don’t want to be on the hook for big dollars. Worse yet, with his defense, he will be a DH sooner rather than later. That will mean big bucks to a reluctant DH who may not be anywhere near this caliber of power hitter midway through his next deal.
The best thing for the Mets was to keep Alonso another year and see if he rebounded from the 2024 regular season. They needed to see if he was the player reborn in the postseason.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1842019321888821370?s=46&t=C-cAjvMjkzGA7iCb6Xr6ng
Sadly, that won’t happen because the Wilpons tried to mortgage everything to win the 2019 World Series. However, they were too over leveraged to actually accomplish that goal.
Now, we are pondering life without Alonso. We’re pondering if it makes sense to keep him. We’re pondering if the money for him is better spent on other players.
We’re doing all of this when Alonso should be a Met in 2025. However, he’s not because of another Wilpon grift. Hopefully, this will be the very last time the Wilpons can ever harm this franchise, its players, or the fans ever again.
When looking at the New York Mets free agents, it’s obvious they need to push to keep Sean Manae. Of course, fans want to keep Pete Alonso.
However, when you break it all done, Jesse Winker might just be the most important free agent to re-sign this offseason.
Winker has had an interesting relationship with this franchise. First, he was an irritant. Then, he joined a Mets franchise he said he long wanted to play for. He following a massively disappointing post-trade deadline regular season with a great postseason.
With the postseason, we saw Winker slot nicely in as a platoon DH option. It was from that position, he did the most damage as a Met including his NLDS homer against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Looking at this Mets team, there isn’t a pure DH option available. Digging deeper into free agency, there isn’t a clear cut better option than Winker, and no, we’re not going to consider that horrendous human being, Marcell Ozuna, as an option.
Winker, 31, has been a solid hitter and on-base machine in his career. Over his eight year career, he has a 121 wRC+ and a .367 OBP. In many ways, you could describe him as Brandon Nimmo lite.
He’s at the tail end of his prime. After a troubling decline in his metrics the previous few seasons, he rebounded in 2024 showing an improved exit velocity, hard hit percentage, and barrel rate.
Mostly, with the Mets, he brings something different to the table. He brings an edge they haven’t had in years, and he has a way of getting under everyone’s skin the way he used to irritate Mets fans in previous seasons.
Going back to Nimmo for a moment, the Mets do need other everyday outfield options to help keep him healthy. For his part, Winker can play left field but can’t everyday. In all honesty, he’s one of the worst corner outfielders in the game as evidenced by the Mets keeping a hobbled Nimmo in left over him.
That said, it’s a 162 game season. The Mets can find spots for Winker to give Nimmo a day. There’s certainly value in that.
The other downside is he’s really just a platoon option at DH with a career 88 wRC+ against left-handed pitching. However, when looking at the Mets roster, that might be a benefit for them.
Starling Marte is 36, struggles against right-hand pitching, and might actually be a worse fielder than Winker. The Mets always need Mark Vientos in the lineup, but they don’t need his glove in the field. Francisco Álvarez can benefit from more days off behind the plate while getting consistent plate appearances.
All told, whether or not the Mets sign Juan Soto, Winker is a fit at DH. The team can use his bat from the left side at DH, his flair for the dramatic, and his edge. He’s the rare player built to thrive in New York, and the Mets should work quickly to keep him here.
For a brief moment when Jeff McNeil singled home Tyron Taylor, you let yourself dream one last time. Francisco Álvarez was suddenly hitting great, and then it’s Francisco Lindor. Mark Vientos would represent the tying run . . . .
Look, if there was any team that could do it, it was this New York Mets team. If anything, a six run rally with two outs would perfectly encapsulate what this team had been.
Sadly, Álvarez grounded out to end the series.
They’ll tell us the Los Angeles Dodgers were just the better team. The Mets were lucky to get this far. Us Mets fans know better.
There was so much fun with this team with Grimace and OMG. Jose Iglesias was this year’s José Valentíne. Sean Manae became an ace. Carlos Mendoza looks like he may well soon be the best manager in baseball.
Lindor was an MVP in every sense of the word. Vientos finally got his chance and would show the world he’s a star in the making. Pete Alonso reminded us why we loved him so.
This is a Mets team we will remember and cherish forever.
The reasons to adore this team are far too many to count, but in the end, this team was quintessentially a Mets team. In some ways, this run was reminiscent of the 1999 run that just fell short. Fortunately, with Steve Cohen and David Stearns, we know this is just the beginning of what can be a long, dominant stretch.
As for now, time just caught up with this team.
Brandon Nimmo was just too injured. There were just too many innings on the arms of Manae and Luis Severino. There wasn’t enough time for Kodai Senga to get where he needed to be. José Buttó and Phil Maton couldn’t carry that regular season success into the postseason.
In the moment, you’re wringing your hands saying if only the Mets got just one hit (other than Vientos’ grand slam) with the bases loaded it would be a completely different series. There are moves like J.D. Martinez in Games 3 and 4 where you’re left wondering what if . . . .
Sitting there on my couch with an upset 10 year old, all you can say is this one hurt. It’s hurts that they lost. It hurts because we all completely fell in love with this team and reminded you why you love the New York Mets with every fiber of your being.
This was the first real postseason run for my kids. For me, I was way too young in 1986, and 1988 was fleeting. But to this day, I’ll forever cherish the 1999 team.
I can tell you everything about that team, and I’ll fight anyone who doesn’t say that wasn’t the greatest defensive infield of all time.
For my sons, Lindor is their Mike Piazza. Vientos is their Edgardo Alfonzo. Manea and Severino are their Al Leiter and Rick Reed. Fortunately, no one will be their Armando Benitez.
Ultimately, this is the team you point back to and say this is why I love baseball. I love the Mets.
When they’re raising their sons to be Mets fans, they will talk about Lindor against the Braves, Alonso against the Brewers, Vientos’ NLDS, and all this season entailed.
For now, it’s pain. In the days, weeks, and months ahead, it’ll be fondly remembered.
For my dad, I don’t know how many more of these we have left. The 1999 and 2000 runs we special. It’s only cruel we had Adam Wainwright doing color in the this year’s NLDS. We left Game 3 of the 2015 World Series thinking they were going to win. We were holding onto hope after Game 5.
There’s always a certain magic when the Mets make these runs. Maybe it’s because it’s just their 11th postseason appearance, but in reality it’s more.
Because it’s always so special and magical, it hurts more. I wanted this for Lindor and what we have the fans, for Alonso in what may be his last year with the Mets, and Nimmo for staying.
Mostly, I wanted it for my family. I don’t want to be the 1994 New York Rangers fan or 2004 Boston Red Sox fan visiting a grave telling dad we finally did it. I want to be there with my boys, dad, and brother having that one moment.
Just one.
Maybe this is the springboard for 2025. Maybe that will be the year the Mets won. For now, it’s just appreciating what was while thinking about what could have been.
So, to that, thank you to the 2024 Mets for this magical season. Your team will be forever loved by Mets fans and will always have a special place in my heart.
Want to know the quickest way to find out someone knows nothing about baseball? Let them tell you Francisco Lindor isn’t worth his contract.
When Steve Cohen officially took over as New York Mets owner, he quickly announced to the world the days of the Wilpons was over. He did that by not only authorizing the trade for Lindor, but also by establishing a personal relationship with the player.
This wasn’t Curtis Granderson and salmon. It was Lindor invited to Cohen’s home to have dinner with his family. Then, the mega deal came.
10 years. $341 million.
The contract was a statement. It’s been a constant talking point. It’s a lightning rod for a Mets team who has underperformed what we expected them to do when Cohen took over.
Make no mistake the contract is not the reason for the Mets relative struggles. It’s hasn’t stopped Cohen from spending. Moreover, Lindor has been great.
Since coming to the Mets, Lindor has an 18.1 WAR, 119 wRC+, and a 21 OAA. People just don’t understand how great these numbers are.
By WAR, Lindor is the 8th best player in all of baseball since joining the Mets. His wRC+ is tied for 36th overall and third among shortstops. His OAA is the third best and second among shortstops.
Lindor is a top 10 player in baseball. At worst, he’s a top two shortstop. He plays everyday giving the Mets a Gold Glove at short a with 30/30 caliber offensive threat.
He’s giving the Mets what Carlos Beltran and David Wright once did. Like with Beltran, he had a slow start to his Mets career before becoming that superstar player forever judged by a massive contract and early animosity with the fans.
With Lindor, it was him and Javier Báez and the thumbs down. For Beltran, it was poor reaction to the booing and the initial unwillingness to answer the curtain calls.
Despite the early difficulties, Lindor has played like a future Hall of Famer with the Mets. He’s been a leader and a superstar. He’s been worth every penny.
When Lindor signed his deal, 1.0 WAR was worth about $9.5 million. At an 18.1 WAR, Lindor has been worth $171.95 million. Through the end of this year, he will be paid $126.4.
That means he’s provided the additional value of a player who has provided a 4.4 WAR per year. That’s essentially what Pete Alonso has provided the Mets in his career.
Think about that for a moment. Lindor providing production at a level equivalent to his play and Alonso’s. He’s providing value equivalent to TWO superstar players.
And yet, somehow, people want to question whether he’s worth the money?!?!?! If you’re paying attention, and actually understand the dynamics, he’s been worth more than he’s being paid.
Lindor is a superstar. He’s a future Hall of Famer. His 12 will be retired by the Mets, and he will have a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. He’s been worth far more money than the Mets have paid him, and that will likely remain the case throughout his Mets career.
In the ninth inning of the All-Star Game, Pete Alonso pinch hit for Freddie Freeman to lead off the ninth inning with the National League down by two runs. With Freeman being a Mets killer and Alonso’s struggles, most Mets fans chuckled at the decision.
Of course, we know it’s about everyone playing. Long ago, the All-Star Game went from competitive to participation trophy. Still, the juxtaposition was notable for Mets fans.
By most measures, this appears to be a career worst year for Alonso (COVID season being an exception for a litany of reasons). Right now, Alonso is on pace for a career worst slugging, OPS, and wRC+.
Notably, he’s well on pace for a career low in homers. That is correlating with more doubles. This isn’t Alonso legging out extra base hits, but more likely, a diminution in power.
His 11.7 barrel% is a career worst. The 88.3 average exit velocity is a career worst, and more alarmingly, this would mark a third successive season Alonso has seen his exit velocity dip.
Looking at the “clutch” stats, he’s doing most of his damage when the game is out of reach. When the score is within three runs, his stats are abysmal. It gets to the point where you don’t expect him to deliver in the big spot anymore.
Of course, not all of that is fair to Alonso. Clutch stats vary year-to-year. With the season teetering early and Gary Cohen pondering if this was already the low point of a lost season, he hit a huge homer to deliver the Mets first win of the season.
Fact is, we’ve seen many big moments from Alonso over his Mets career. The question is will there be more in the ensuing seasons.
This is partially a question because Alonso turned down a seven year $158 million extension offer. For a point of reference, this was higher AAV than the Atlanta Braves signed Matt Olson, who is a superior first baseman.
Whatever the reason, Scott Boras or not, Alonso believed he deserved more. Watching him this season, it’s difficult to imagine he even matches the offer the Mets once gave him.
Keep in mind, that was when Billy Eppler was the GM. Eppler is now out, and David Stearns is in charge. Stearns’ appetite to keep Alonso may motivated be the same. That does double with Juan Soto hitting the free agent market.
Free agent history is replete with massive mistakes for deals with one dimensional slugging first basemen. Ask the Philadelphia Phillies about the Ryan Howard deal, or the Baltimore Orioles about Chris Davis.
It’s very likely we already saw the best of Alonso. Truth be told, with his -6 OAA, Mark Vientos is already a better option at first. At the moment, Vientos is also a better hitter with a brighter future. Keep in mind, Vientos is a bad third baseman, and he needs to move across the diamond.
In the end, seeing Alonso’s decline and Vientos’ rise, the Mets would almost be foolish to extend Alonso at this point. That goes double with the pending free agent class. In reality, such an extension would be purely sentimental.
Fortunately for Alonso, he has the second half where he can show the Mets he’s the guy who can hit 500 homers in Queens. He’s historically been a second half player, and the Mets need him to be that to lead them to the postseason.
However, if we see more of the same of the 2024 Alonso, this will unfortunately be his last season as a Met. So far, he’s made that an easy decision for Stearns. It’s time for him to make it a difficult decision.
In the (again) revamped Home Run Derby, Bobby Witt, Jr. came just short in his attempts to tie Teoscar Hernandez in the final rounds. It was great drama for what aspires to be a fun event. In turn, it aspires to draw fans to baseball.
In that, it failed . . . again.
The event had a listed start time of 8:00 P.M., but that’s when the unnecessary pomp and circumstance began. We should’ve known we were in for it when Ingrid Andress did her best Roseanne Barr or Carl Lewis impersonation performing the National Anthem.
It’s summer vacation, so I made a deal with the boys they can stay up for as long as Pete Alonso was in the event. Alonso didn’t get very far, so I relented and let them stay up longer.
And longer.
And longer.
By the time Witt’s last ball hit the base of the wall, it was 10:57 PM EST. Let’s face it. Most kids were in bed long ago, and even the baseball crazy dads had to eventually relent and send the kids to bed.
We’re constantly asking what can baseball do to attract a younger generation. Baseball fans are older, and Major League Baseball is looking for ways to attract younger fans.
This SHOULD be the perfect event. Kids LOVE stars. They love homers. This should be the event that captivates the young fan drawing them to the All-Star Game and the rest of the season.
That’s not happening at 10:57 PM. Instead, they wake up the next day. Check the iPad and move on with their day. There’s no live or die with the event or the sport. That was lost hours ago.
There’s a number of tweaks that could be addressed. The bonus round was superfluous and made the event drag. They could get rid of human garbage like Marcel Ozuna. Mostly, they need to find out a way to make this end at a more kid friendly time.
Dads have no issue letting kids stay up for the big sport event. I’ll never forget staying up to see Gene Larkin hit a game winning fly to left off Alejandro Peña scoring Dan Gladden.
The Home Run Derby certainly isn’t the World Series. Sadly, an event lacking Aaron Judge and most of baseball’s biggest stars makes this just a lesser event. Having Ken Griffey, Jr. there was a reminder of how big an event this once was (of course, Griffey was also the one who wanted out of the event).
Really, baseball is close to getting back to that point. It’s a tweak here. Finding better ways to get the stars (hat tip to Alonso and Jose Ramirez for participating). Whatever they do next, they have to make sure the event ends before 10:57 PM.
Once that happens, the younger fans can stay tuned in longer, and from there, new fans are born (or the current fans become bigger fans). As they tweak the rules to this event seemingly every year, hopefully, next year, they’ll find the right formula.
The New York Mets did everything they could do to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Everything.
Steve Cohen flew his private jet to meet him in Japan. He hosted him in his home. He also offered him the largest ever contract for a starting pitcher.
12 years. $325 million. Opt out after five years.
Short of hypnosis, the Mets did all they could. They went above where even the New York Yankees were willing to go. They just couldn’t overcome Yamamoto wanting to join Shohei Ohtani.
The Los Angeles Dodgers matched the Mets offer, and now, Yamamoto chose the Dodgers. If the Dodgers didn’t match, or the Mets were given a chance to match, who knows how this ends?
While we can guess, in the end, Yamamoto is a Dodger. Worse yet, the Mets offseason was structured as Yamamoto or bust. The Mets busted.
The question is where do the Mets go from here. There’s mid rotation options like Jordan Montgomery. Blake Snell is also available, but he isn’t an innings eater.
If the Mets want everyone to forget about the failed Yamamoto pursuit, they could give Pete Alonso an extension. Other than that, the fans will be up in arms over this failed pursuit.
They can also do what they were going to do all along. Cohen waited years for David Stearns, and it’s now time to see what he can do.
Whatever he does, he will be doing it without Yamamoto. Maybe that’s a good thing considering that cost and complete and utter lack of MLB experience.
Yes, that’s sour grapes.
That doesn’t mean the Mets can’t contend. There are still players here. An 84 sim Arizona Diamondbacks team went to the World Series. Just get in, and anything is possible.
That all said, the Mets did all they could. Doesn’t matter. Yamamoto is a Dodger.
If there was anyone who knew what the job entailed, it was Buck Showalter. You are supposed to face the brunt on the criticisms even if they are not of your own doing. You also get credit for things whether or not you deserved it.
In 2022, Showalter was happy to get all of the credit as he won his fourth Manager of the Year Award. He won the award despite his team having an unprecedented late season collapse.
In 2023, things did not go as well. As we saw in the season review on The Athletic, Showalter certainly deserved his fair share of the blame. It painted Showalter as out of touch with a team who didn’t work hard enough and made far too many mental lapses. While that might’ve been the case in 2022, that typically has not been Showalter’s modus operandi throughout his career.
Then again, the Mets are strange. You can thrive with the New York Yankees, but as we saw with Curtis Granderson, it still took a year to adapt to being a Met. For some reason, this team, regardless of ownership, is just a different burden than any other Major League team. With that, we do see people acting out of character, or maybe, their real character coming to light.
Showalter knew things were bad during the season, and that’s why he made a plea to the reporters to help him keep his job. We did see reporters take up the call on multiple occasions, but in the end, they were unsuccessful. Reporters having Showalter’s back is no surprise as he has always had a good relationship with the media, which honestly, was one of the reasons why he was hired in the first place.
With the hiring of David Stearns, it was definitely the end for Showalter, and he would announce his Mets tenure was over before the last game of the season. As a result, we would see Showalter get a tribute from the team and fans.
https://x.com/MBrownstein89/status/1708560255687196795?s=20
The team was careful not to trash him either directly or through back channels. They let him end his Mets tenure with their gratitude for the past two years. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for Showalter.
There was the absurd charge from the media that the Mets mishandled the firing. Then, there were reports Pete Alonso wanted to go to Steve Cohen directly to voice his displeasure with the decision. That report was gilding the lily a bit as we know the players on this Mets team loved Showalter.
https://x.com/NYPost_Mets/status/1708975007295046124?s=20
However, now, we are starting to get into the problematic areas. Mike Puma of the New York Post had an “unnamed source” who said Showalter disagreed with Billy Eppler over Eppler’s insistence that Showalter kept Daniel Vogelbach in the lineup. We know the source was Showalter or someone very close to him, and it is obvious why he used Vogelbach as he was a lightning rod with the fanbase this season.
Much of what was said doesn’t pass the smell test. The argument Showalter viewed DH as a partial rest position runs in opposition to his 22 year managerial career. Showalter always had a DH for most of his career. Just go ask Danny Tartabull, Rafael Palmeiro, Pedro Alvarez, and yes, Vogelbach.
It would also have us believe Showalter was the one who wanted to play the rookies instead of the veterans. Showalter has always been a manager who plays the veterans over the young players. This year is a classic example.
Put aside his starting Vogelbach over Mark Vientos most games. When Vientos was finally in the lineup against a left-handed starter, Showalter would quickly go to his bench to bring in Vogelbach when a right-handed reliever was in the game to face Vientos. Again, this is what Showalter always was.
However, this is all besides the point. Maybe, all of those non-analytically driven lineups were made by the front office and not Showalter. Maybe Showalter really was doing what was told despite it being in direction opposition to the millions of dollars Steve Cohen is pouring into the analytics program.
Perhaps, Eppler was the one to blame here and in other circumstances. That’s not difficult to believe. However, what is difficult to believe is Showalter and his camp would air their dirty laundry after his termination.
Showalter was happy taking credit when it was a 101 win team that garnered him awards. When it was time to take the blame, he asked for the media’s help, and now, he is telling everyone he wasn’t to blame. In retrospect, maybe this isn’t too surprising as Showalter once told Bill Pennington of the New York Times that George Steinbrenner attempted to rehire him right after the Yankees hired Joe Torre.
In the end, Showalter just wants us to know he was great, and nothing was his fault. It was the Mets, who threw him a lifeline back into the game, who were to blame. That same Mets organization has been careful to give him all the credit and none of the blame. In the end, that is what makes Showalter’s behavior all the more unprofessional.