LAS VEGAS — If you are a Mets fan, wherever you stand on the notion of a new contract for Pete Alonso, you almost certainly find yourself wondering if the Polar Bear has indeed played his final home game in Queens.

Guess what? You have company.

Here are two other parties who have no idea how this will play out: The team and the player.

In the early days of the offseason, a perception has seemed to congeal that Alonso is a goner, and that Mets president of baseball operation David Stearns does not want him.

The former is inaccurate because it is way premature. The latter is inaccurate because … well, it just is.

There seems to be, among many fans, a perception of Stearns as a cold technocrat who can’t understand the emotional connection fans feel toward a player. That is not true. This same supposed technocrat spent his childhood sneaking a radio into his bed to listen to Gary Cohen and Bob Murphy on school nights.

In terms of attachment to the Mets, Stearns is one of you. And like you, he knows Alonso delivered an outstanding offensive season in 2025, and a subpar defensive campaign. Unlike you, Stearns’ job — an element of his dream job, by the way — is to decide how many years and dollars that is worth to the franchise, and to avoid a contract that will end up hurting the team he loves.

Another oft-repeated inaccuracy is that Stearns did not want to sign Alonso last winter, and that Steve Cohen did. My information was always that the two were aligned on wanting the player but fearing the downside of a long commitment.

They were both happy to have Alonso on team in 2025 — which, in fairness, he almost certainly would not have been had any other club offered a four- or five-year contract. Alonso re-signed with the Mets on a two-year deal that included an inevitable opt-out after year one.

My hunch is that both Stearns and Cohen would be happy to welcome Alonso back in 2026, albeit with a significant increase in at-bats as designated hitter. They like the person and the ballplayer.

The complications begin when we talk about the term. It’s hard to imagine an increased willingness to offer Alonso four or five years, now that he is 12 months older.

But it’s also hard — no, it’s impossible — to predict how Alonso’s second shot at free agency will proceed. And therefore it is simply too early to say with any confidence or accuracy that a Boston or a Tampa Bay or whoever else will offer five years, and that Alonso will leave town.

Interest in Imai, but how much?

The Mets will be in on free agent pitcher Tatsuya Imai, whose NPB team, the Seibu Lions, will post this offseason. But I don’t expect the team to mount a Yoshinobu Yamamoto-style, full-tilt pursuit.

Why? Evaluators like Imai but suggest that he is no sure thing to succeed as an MLB starter. His mid-to-high ‘90s fastball might or might not play here; industry opinion on that is mixed.

Imai is an interesting option and should prompt conversations with any club in search of pitching, the Mets included. But the early word at the GM Meetings is that he will not captivate the industry on quite the same level that Yamamoto did two winters ago, when he spurned the Mets and Yankees to sign a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers.

Popular in the Community