The Mets want to keep Pete Alonso in Queens — but they’re going to let him test the market.
President of baseball operations David Stearns addressed Alonso’s status during his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, three days after the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs in Game 6 of the NLCS.
“Pete’s a great Met. He was right out there right before I came in [to the press conference room.] I told him I was about to answer a lot of questions about him. He told me good luck,” Stearns said of the impending free agent.
“He’s a great Met. I hope we have him back. I think we both understand this is a process and everyone’s got their own interests. Pete deserves to go out into the free-agent market and see what’s out there and then ultimately make the best choice for him and his family.”
Alonso, 29, hit .240 with a career-low .788 OPS in his sixth season with the Mets, hitting 34 home runs and recording 88 RBIs.
He was one of the heroes of the Mets’ surprising playoff run, hitting a game-winning three-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 3 against the Brewers in the wild-card round and finishing the playoffs with four homers, 10 RBIs, 12 walks, a .273 average and .999 OPS in 13 games.
“Pete and I frankly have never really talked about his contract face-to-face. I think those conversations are best left generally with a player’s representative,” Stearns said. “But Pete and I talked about the team plenty. He’s very invested in our group, certainly was very invested in this team this year and obviously got some enormous hits for us down the stretch.”