What do you do when your biggest homegrown star is not signing an extension? More importantly, when your entire team is floundering and needs to reduce its payroll? Wouldn’t trade be a great option then? The New York Mets are going through a similar time. They’re currently 4th in the NL East with a 22-30 record. What’s more absurd is that they’re already 16 games behind the Division leader. At this stage, with Pete Alonso’s imminent free agency, many questions are being raised. 

But while most fans aren’t ready yet to let go of Alonso, at least one person related to the Mets fanbase has given the green light to it. Howie Rose, a popular broadcaster for the New York Mets, recently gave his two cents on the entire situation. According to Rose, maximizing Alonso’s value isn’t a wrong strategy, especially when the Metsies need all the help they can get.

“If you get to the point where you feel that you’re not going to make the playoffs, and we’re way, way ahead of ourselves on that,” Rose said. “But if they get to that deadline and they feel they need to be sellers than buyers, I feel you have to trade him (Alonso).” That is quite a logical take.

Despite a $300 million+ payroll, the Mets are nowhere near where they should be. On top of that, rumors of Alonso rejecting a 7-year extension offer have made it clear that the Scott Boras client wants to look at the whole market. In that case, the Mets getting some players for Alonso looks reasonable. But then things aren’t as simple as they look. How many times does a player re-sign with the team that traded him during his free agency? 

As a result, this is a highly slippery slope for the Mets. One bad step and they might be somewhere from where there’s no coming back. As for Alonso – he’s quite defiant in his stance – a trade is far from his mind.

Pete Alonso remains defiant but the New York Mets need to decide

Pete Alonso was asked about a possible trade during an interview with The Athletic. The star didn’t pay much heed to the rumors and rather paid more attention to the remaining season. “We’re still a long ways away,” Alonso said. “We have at least two months. That’s a lot of time…It’s not like the trade deadline is 10 days away. So I feel like there’s plenty of time for us to make up ground.” 

Alonso reiterated that he loves the Mets and everything about it. “I love putting on the uniform. This place is obviously very special to me,” Alonso said. Despite his impending free agency, Pete Alonso’s stance as Mr. Mets remains undoubtable. In a way, he’s similar to Aaron Judge, who remained a Yankee at heart during his free agency. Now one wonders whether Pete Alonso and New York Mets’ story will get an end similar to their cross-town neighbors.