Agent Scott Boras may have overestimated the free agent market for New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso. According to some accounts, excessive salary demands made by Boras prompted Alonso to go unsigned until Wednesday night when he agreed to return to the Mets – the only MLB team he has ever played for.
Ultimately, Alonso chose a two-year, $54 million contract with the Mets, significantly less than the six years and $200 million Boras was originally believed to be requesting for his 30-year-old client.
Back on Jan. 30, former Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden projected that Alonso was “gonna lose this negotiation. It is what it is.” And Bowden turned out to be right, at least according to Fox Sports baseball writer Deesha Thosar.
“The Mets certainly won this negotiation with Alonso,” Thosar wrote, in a story on Mets owner Steve Cohen’s reaction to the Alonso agreement. “They simply were not going to budge on a short-term contract, which represents a dramatic contrast from the prior CEOs working under Cohen.
” In Thosar’s report, Cohen — a hedge fund CEO with a personal fortune estimated at $21.3 billion, making him the 39th richest person in the United States according to Forbes — delivered a message to Alonso, now that the 2019 National League Rookie of the Year is back with the Mets for at least another season. His contract allows him to opt out after one year.
”If he performs well, excellent for him, right? I mean, how great is that?” Cohen remarked in the Fox Sports interview. “He simply needs to be Pete. Go do his thing. Hopefully he’s more relaxed. Not suggesting he wasn’t relaxed. But maybe he can go focus on what he does, which is baseball, and enjoy the season with his teammates. Let’s go win something.
” Earlier in the free agent period, Cohen and the Mets went through three rounds of discussions before winning a hard-fought struggle to capture the services of generational slugger Juan Soto – with a 15-year, $765 million contract.
But the Soto negotiations were “a walk in the park” compared to the laborious, 12-week battle to bring Alonso back for his much smaller salary, Cohen told the New York Post on Thursday. Nonetheless, the $30 million Alonso will receive in 2025 makes him the highest-paid first baseman in MLB, at least for one season.
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