Mets: Weighing the pros and cons of an early Pete Alonso contract extension

Cons of extending Pete Alonso early

What could possibly go wrong with an extension? I’ll give you three names: Juan Lagares, Jon Niese, and David Wright.

To varying degrees, those three extensions all backfired on the Mets. Lagares and Niese never lived up to expectations. For Wright, it was the injury bug that bit him.

The difference with Alonso is that he’s young and has already had an amazing year. Lagares and Niese looked like fine players with a solid future. Alonso has his remarkable season. If anything, he already earned some consideration for an extension.

Wright’s extension was also anything but premature. He was already an established veteran who had the unfortunate luck of suffering too many injuries later in his career. It’s a risk every team takes whenever they sign a player.

Financially, extending Alonso early could also prevent the club from doing some more urgent moves. Michael Conforto, Marcus Stroman, and Noah Syndergaard are ahead of him on the list of players ready to reach free agency. Skipping them to reward Alonso with an extension may limit what they can do with those three.

What’s more, these men are all human. They know it’s a business, but a bad relationship could always develop as a result.

Alonso deserves all of the praise in the world for what he has done in his short time as a major leaguer. He has single-handedly helped reshape the culture around the team.

It took only one season for the Mets to become a lovable squad with a contagious appetite for winning and having fun.

The big question to answer now is what the Mets should actually do.

What should the Mets do?

We all think we know what’s best for the Mets. From answering who should bat leadoff to which pitcher should face the toughest lefty in the other team’s lineup when there is no southpaw left in our bullpen, we always think we know the answer.

I believe it’s a little tougher to know what to do when money is involved. From a hands-off look at things, of course the Mets should extend Alonso. It’s not my money. There’s no salary cap in baseball either.

We cannot look at things that way. We know better—whether it’s a Wilpon signing the checks or somebody else.

Taking this into account with the pros and cons weighed, there’s obviously no rush to sign Alonso to an early extension. Although we see other teams locking up their young stars early, we have to realize all situations are different.

Weighing heaviest for the Mets is that there are others the club has to look at before Alonso. As much as I would love to know Alonso is in blue and orange by the time I’m almost 40, it’s by far not the most pressing need.

The Mets need to continue building around Alonso and reward him well during his early rookie contract and arbitration years. They did the right thing already, giving him a record $652,000 deal for his second season in 2020. Whether or not he’ll get the full thing doesn’t matter. He’s already well ahead of the curve and should get rewarded for at least a few more seasons.

I do expect Alonso to eventually get his extension. However, it won’t happen until sometime after the 2021 season when his arbitration seasons begin and the club has already made their decision on Conforto and Syndergaard.

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By then, we should also know better what Alonso is worth. My guess is it’ll be every penny he gets paid and maybe even more.