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3 hours ago
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The Polar Bear is going to be well fed.
New York Mets free agent Pete Alonso, affectionately known by that nickname, is going to get paid well by someone this offseason.
Whether it's the Mets or a different team remains to be seen.
But on Thursday, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel released an idea of what it'll cost. He projects Alonso to sign a four-year contract for $110 million.
He's a similar free agent to Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, which McDaniel points out in the analysis below.
"Alonso's baserunning and defensive metrics continue to regress, almost entirely due to his range; some evaluators think he should be a primary DH going forward, which would hurt his long-term value," McDaniel writes. "There's some of the Schwarber logic here -- everyone in baseball would like to have Alonso for the next few seasons, but then the interest gets more mixed around season three or four. I could see some teams offering a fifth year, but for a number about half of the AAV listed above, so something more like $120-125 million guaranteed. The industry values a left-handed bat (Schwarber) more than a right-handed one (Alonso), so that combined with Schwarber's better 2025 numbers makes up for him being older than Alonso. I think all that adds up to Schwarber securing a bigger guarantee than Alonso, but it might be quite close."
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There have actually been some suggestions that the Mets will replace Alonso with Schwarber, but that seems at this point to be entirely speculation.
Alonso has been a fan favorite for the Mets, a guy who wins the Home Run Derby and also hits clutch homers in October. Seeing him in a different uniform would be a bit weird for everyone.
The Mets will just decide what he's worth to them. Steve Cohen can pay if he wants to, so whether or not Alonso gets kept has the potential to be revelatory about his true value.
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