February 12 : The Mets officially announced their deal with Alonso today. February 5 : The stalemate between and the Mets is over. New York is reportedly in agreement on a two-year, $54MM deal with the star first baseman. Alonso, a client of the Boras Corporation, can opt out after the upcoming season. He receives a $10MM signing bonus and a $20MM salary for 2025. Hell e sentially have a $24MM player option for the 26 campaign. The deal comes with a $27MM average annual value for luxury tax purposes. Alonso chose the two-year deal over a separate offer from the Mets that would have guaranteed $71MM over three seasons. Alonso, who turned 30 in December, returns to Queens for a seventh season. He has been one of the faces of the franchise since his electrifying debut. Alonso led the majors with 53 home runs en route to a runaway Rookie of the Year win in 2019. That still stands as the all-time rookie home run record. He connected on 16 longballs in the shortened follow-up season and has topped 30 homers in each of the last four years. Thats a testament not only to his ma sive power but to his exceptional availability. Alonso has played at least 152 games in each of his five full seasons. He appeared in all 162 contests last year. His only career injured list stint was a minimal stay in 2023 related to a bone bruise in his left wrist. Over the last six seasons, only has played in more games. Semien and are the only hitters with more plate Paul Gervase Jersey appearances. On a rate basis, Alonsos production has dropped in consecutive seasons. He carried a .261/.349/.535 batting line through his first four seasons. Alonso hit another 46 homers in 2023, though he did so with career-low marks in batting average (.217) and on-base percentage (.318). His average and OBP rebounded slightly last season, but his power ticked down. Alonso hit .240 with a .329 OBP and a career-low .459 slugging percentage acro s 695 plate appearances. His 34 homers and 88 runs batted in were each personal worsts over a full schedule. It was a pedestrian year rather than a bad one. Theres clear value in a player who hits 34 home runs in a relative down season. Still, it was the second straight year in which Alonsos offensive production was below his early-career level. Hes a .229/.324/.480 hitter since the start of the 23 campaign. That checks in 21 percentage points better than league average, as measured by wRC+. By that statistic, Alonso ranks ninth in overall offense among the 35 first basemen with at least 750 plate appearances over the past two seasons. Hes just behind and and narrowly ahead of , and . Alonsos durability and power gives him a higher offensive ceiling than the rest of that group. Neverthele s, his recent rate metrics have put him alongside those hitters and a clear step down from , and at the top of the position. Alonsos on-field value lies in the bat and his durability. He doesnt provide baserunning value. His defensive grades at first base are middling. Defensive Runs Saved put him at three runs below par last season and has given him a +2 mark for his career. Statcast had him six runs below average in 2024 and grades him at 18 runs under par overall. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference have both valued Alonso around 2-3 wins above replacement in each of the last two seasons. Of course, Alonsos value to the Mets extends beyond that production. Hes a homegrown star who is already third on the organizations home run leaderboard. He is 16 homers shy of for second place and only needs 27 longballs to surpa s for the franchise record. Hell almost certainly break that record, likely next season. Alonso was also a key contributor during New Yorks run to last years NL Championship Series. He saved the season in the Wild Card series with his three-run shot off in the ninth inning of Game 3. That was one of four longballs he hit in October. Alonso slashed .273/.431/.568 acro s 58 postseason plate appearances. Modern front offices are generally wary about putting much stock in small-sample playoff numbers, though, and Alonsos unexceptional regular season worked against him in free agency. The four-time All-Star hit the market envisioning a strong nine-figure deal. His camp presumably sought something in the range of the and Freeman contracts. Olson inked an eight-year, $168MM extension with the Braves; Freeman signed a six-year, $162MM guarantee with the Dodgers, though deferrals dropped the net present value closer to $148MM. At one point, the Mets valued Alonso similarly. has reported that Alonso declined a seven-year, $158MM extension offer in June 2023. That would have bought out his final arbitration season and six free agent years. Alonso made $20.5MM in his last arbitration year, so hed need to beat $137.5MM over the next six seasons to come out ahead in that decision. Circumstances have changed significantly since the Mets made that offer. Alonso has switched his representation to the Boras Corporation. The Mets moved on from then-GM Billy Eppler and installed David Stearns at the top of baseball operations. The Brewers rarely invested heavily in first basemen, even via arbitration, during Stearns tenure as Milwaukees general manager. Hes operating with a much different payroll ceiling under Steve Cohens ownership, but this generally hasnt been his preferred player archetype. While Stearns and Cohen maintained that they wanted Alonso back, they didnt want to do so on a long-term deal. They made the obvious decision to put forth a qualifying offer, which the slugger easily rejected. It seems they held off on going beyond three years. As his free agency dragged, Alonso moved off his desire for a long-term deal in talks with the Mets. His camp reportedly pitched a three-year term with multiple opt-out chances. Financial specifics arent clear, but the Mets countered with a three-year proposal in the $68-70MM range in the middle of January. After Alonso declined, the Mets signaled they were willing to move on to contingencies. Whether the Mets actually believed Alonso would walk or were merely signaling that as negotiating leverage, they must come away pleased with the result. The Mets reportedly had two different offers on the table: a three-year, $71MM proposal or the two-year deal which he ultimately accepted. reports that the three-year term also included an opt-out after the first season and would have broken down as a $27MM salary in year one followed by $22MM salaries if he didnt opt out. Alonso preferred the extra $3MM in the first season, betting on himself to play well enough to take the out clause next winter. The Mets keep the term short and retain Alonso on a deal that more closely resembles the two-year contracts signed by ($34MM with Milwaukee) and ($37MM with Texas) than the Olson or Freeman precedents. Its an ideal cap to a dangerous lineup. The Mets won the bidding on the record-shattering $765MM deal as the Winter Meetings were getting underway. New York brought back to serve as their designated hitter, at least against right-handed pitching. Thatll keep at third base for another season. , and are key holdovers, with and one of or rounding out the projected starting nine. Keeping Vientos at third base blocks the clearest path to playing time for younger infielders , and . The latter two could push McNeil for reps at second base. They all have a minor league option remaining, so the Mets could keep all three at Triple-A Syracuse. They dont need to make a trade theres a good chance Alonso will retest free agency next winter but its po sible the surplus makes them more willing to include an upper-level infielder in a package for a top-end starter. New York has built strong rotation depth but arguably needs to increase the rotations ceiling to pull ahead of the Phillies and Braves in whatll be a tough NL East race. The deal pushes the Mets projected payroll to roughly $331MM, according to the calculations. The $27MM luxury tax hit brings them to $325MM in CBT obligations. That pushes them firmly beyond the $301MM threshold that marks the final tier of penalization. Theyre taxed at a 90% clip for the approximate $3MM to push them to that threshold and at a 110% rate on spending beyond that point. The signing comes with approximately $29.1MM in taxes. Theyll pay around $59MM this season to keep Alonso. New York also relinquishes the right to the compensatory draft choice that they would have received had he signed elsewhere after declining the qualifying offer. That pick would have come after the fourth round. Alonso secures a strong one-year salary with an eye towards a more lucrative free agent trip next winter. Players cannot receive a QO more than once in their career, so hed hit the market without draft compensation if he opts out. Hed still come out ahead of that declined extension offer if he secures a deal worth more than $107.5MM over the ensuing five seasons. Thats by no means a guarantee, as hell be working against the aging curve, but its the kind of risk-reward play that a lot of free agents take if they dont find their ideal long-term deal on their first free agent try. first reported that the Mets were re-signing Alonso. had the two-year, $54MM guarantee and the $30MM in year one. of the reported the signing bonus and that Alonso declined a three-year term, which reported had a $71MM guarantee. Image courtesy of Imagn. Luisangel Acuna Jersey