New York Mets Face Arbitration Deadline For Alonso, Five Others
In a week the New York Mets will know if they have to go to an arbitration hearing with any of their players before Spring Training.
No player looms over that deadline like first baseman Pete Alonso, who could make an estimated $21 million in arbitration per Spotrac.com.
He is one of six Mets that are still in arbitration limbo heading into the Jan. 12 deadline to reach an agreement.
Alonso has been the subject of rumors this entire offseason, thanks in part to it being his final arbitration season and free agency looming after next season.
Plus, there’s new leadership in president of baseball operations David Stearns and a desire for the Mets to prepare to be contenders again in 2025.
If the Mets hope to keep Alonso long-term, avoiding an arbitration hearing with him would be ideal, as those hearings tend to create bad feelings on the part of the player as teams have to make a case against the player’s financial figure.
In his five Major League seasons Alonso is a three-time All-Star, former National League Rookie of the Year and has 192 home runs, including a MLB-leading 53 his rookie season in 2019.
But the fact that the Mets only have six players on the arbitration rolls speaks to just how much work Stearns has done to turn over the roster since taking over the Mets.
The Mets entered the offseason with 16 arbitration-eligible players. He jettisoned 11 of them — Daniel Vogelbach, Trevor Gott, Elieser Hernandez, Luis Guillorme, Tim Locastro, Sam Coonrod, Jeff Brigham, John Curtiss, Michael Perez, Danny Mendick and Rafael Ortega.
One got a deal done with the Mets, D.J. Stewart, who signed a $1.38 million contract.
Along with Alonso, three other holdovers need deals before next week — Joey Lucchesi, Drew Smith and David Peterson.
The Mets added two arbitration-eligible players through a trade with Stearns’ former team, the Milwaukee Brewers — Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor.
Three others are also in their final year of arbitration — Houser, Lucchesi and Smith. But none of them will draw that Alonso is expected to draw. Spotrac projects that Houser and Lucchesi could net an estimated $5 million, while Smith could net more than $3 million.
