Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns reiterates desire for Pete Alonso return
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso follows through on his walk-off three-run home run against the Texas Rangers during the tenth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
ORLANDO, Fla. — Pete Alonso is expected to (very literally) take the wheel on his free-agency process Tuesday, driving to baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando from his home over an hour away, but the Mets are currently not on his list of stops.
Alonso has garnered interest from the Orioles and Red Sox, to name a few, but Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday that the slugger doesn’t have a date with his old team.
“I did see Pete was coming,” Stearns said. “I think Pete knows us really well. I think we know Pete really well. I think he’ll take the time here to perhaps meet with organizations he doesn’t know quite as well and I’m sure we’ll be in touch.”
Stearns declined to comment on the status of negotiations but reiterated that “Pete is a great Met and we’d love to have him back . . .
“I think Pete has demonstrated that he’s one of the best offensive players in baseball and he’s performed at a high level for us and so that would be a priority for any team. It certainly is for us.”
That, though, was also similar to the line the Mets used last offseason, when negotiations trickled into February before Alonso agreed to a team-friendly deal of two years, $54 million, with a second-year player option that he then opted out of.
But Alonso has more negotiating power this time around: He no longer has a qualifying offer attached to his name, meaning that whoever signs him won’t have to relinquish a compensatory draft pick, and he’s coming off one of the best seasons of his career, hitting 38 homers with a team-leading 126 RBIs and playing all 162 games. He also eclipsed Darryl Strawberry to be the franchise’s home run leader.
Manager Carlos Mendoza, meanwhile, continued to advocate for Alonso’s return.
“Of course I want him,” Mendoza said Monday. “We're talking about a guy that, as a manager, [has an] ability to post [up] every day. You don't have to worry about who's playing first base and who's going to be hitting in the middle of your lineup. You can't beat that. Again, he earned [testing free agency]. He's going through the process right now. I think David's been very vocal how much we want him, but we'll see how it goes here.”
While not speaking specifically of Alonso, Stearns acknowledged that the front office has been discussing multiyear and long-term contracts, but “whether it works out or not, I don’t know, but we’re not shutting the door on anything.”
He was also asked about reports that Alonso felt somewhat unwanted last offseason. It's something the slugger hinted after the last game of the year when he said he loved being a Met and that, “hopefully, they appreciated me" the same way.
Of that, Stearns replied: “I think we’ve been pretty clear throughout the process that we’d love to have Pete back. We certainly made that clear to his agent right at the start of free agency. We also respect, just as we respected last year, that this is a process and Pete has earned the right to go through the free agent process, to evaluate the market and we’ll see where that leaves us.”
Clubhouse chemistry
Both Mendoza and Stearns downplayed a New York Post report that there were tensions in the clubhouse, specifically between Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil, and a disconnect between Lindor and Juan Soto.
“Nobody talked about our clubhouse when we got to the second week of June with the best record in baseball,” Mendoza said. “[The story then is] we have the best clubhouse. And then we started losing, and now everybody's talking about some of the issues. We had a professional clubhouse. Guys respected each other. Guys enjoyed being around each other. We just didn't play well on the field, and that translated into whatever people call vibe, team chemistry, but at the end of the day, guys showed up, and they respected each other.”
Notes & quotes: Stearns said the Mets are still in the market for relievers and an outfielder, “and we would like to be able to add a starter; we’re also really comfortable with our young starters that are emerging.” . . . Kodai Senga has had “an outstanding offseason,” Stearns said. “He feels as good physically as he has since that 2023 season,” he added, noting that Senga will return stateside to throw at the end of the month.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
