Mets slugging star Pete Alonso has hired the BorasCorp agency to represent him as Alonso heads into his free agent season, The Post has learned.
It’s never easy for a team to sign a superstar in his walk year, and BorasCorp — run by noted baseball agent Scott Boras — has a reputation for taking most — but not all — of his best players to free agency.
However, the Mets and owner Steve Cohen do have an excellent working relationship, with Boras and the Mets agreeing to three big free-agent deals in recent years: the three-year, $130 million Max Scherzer contract, the eight-year, $162 million Brandon Nimmo contract and a 12-year, $315 million deal for Carlos Correa that was eventually abandoned when an issue came up in the physical.
The Mets tried to lock up Alonso last winter, but word at the time was the sides “weren’t in the same ballpark,” and there have been rumblings lately about talks either starting or about to start.
The Mets will surely try again this winter, and new Mets baseball president David Stearns made clear at his opening press conference Monday that their expectation is for Alonso to remain a Met at least into the season.
“Pete is a great player. He is also good in the clubhouse. And he is also homegrown. All of that matters,” Stearns said. “I expect Pete to be the Opening Day first baseman next year. Pete’s an important member of this team. Pete’s an important member of this organization. And I think we are really fortunate to have him.”
There was at least some talk with the Brewers and possibly the Cubs about a trade for Alonso at this past deadline, at least to the point where Brewers ownership approved taking on Alonso’s $14.5 million salary. However, Mets people didn’t characterize those discussions as anything they felt was close to happening.
There was a recent report out of Chicago via WSCR-AM that the Cubs have great interest in Alonso, and another report that suggested Alonso has interest in going to the Cubs, but publicly Alonso has consistently professed his affection for New York and the Mets and Mets people are very skeptical Chicago would be his preference over New York.
In contract talks, the Mets would surely like to cite recent deals for other first base superstars, especially those for two league MVPs — the five-year, $125 million deal Paul Goldschmidt signed with the Cardinals one year before free agency and the six-year, $162 million deal Freddie Freeman signed as a free agent with the Dodgers that included some deferrals.
But Boras is likely to reference two older contracts for first basemen he represented: the $214 million, nine-year Tigers deal for Prince Fielder and the $180 million, eight-year Yankees deal for Mark Teixeira, while also mentioning those deals are at least a decade old. He may even suggest they are outdated.
While Boras is famous for scoring big deals in free agency, a few of his star players signed with their current team with one year to go on their contract.
Ex-Angels pitcher Jered Weaver signed an $85 million, five-year deal. Years ago, Cleveland’s star second baseman Carlos Baerga also signed while not too far from free agency.
Alonso, 28, leads the majors with 192 homers and 498 RBIs since he debuted in 2019. In fact, the 192 homers he’s hit is the third-most in baseball history for the first five years of a career, trailing only Hall of Famer and Mets broadcasting great Ralph Kiner (215) and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols (201).
The likelihood is that Alonso would be No. 1 on that list had 102 games not been wiped out in the pandemic year of 2020. Alonso has three 40-homer seasons over the past five seasons, and no other MLB player has more than one in that time.
Alonso is also very durable. Since his debut, Alonso, who had 46 homers and 118 RBIs with a .217 average this past year, has played the third-most games (684), trailing only Marcus Semien (700) and Freeman (697).