The Polar Bear Returneth

Giving us Mets fans something else to complain about in July

Feb 07, 2025

Our long national nightmare is over.

No, not that one.

Or that one either.

I mean this one: Pete Alonso is still a New York Met.

We Mets fans have been watching this microdrama since Pete played what many presumed to be his last game in a Mets uniform during our team’s improbable 2024 playoff run, left wondering for weeks where Pete might be come spring training.

Sure, we all wanted him back at Citi Field. That despite his propensity to strike out at the worst possible times. His occasional leaden feet at first base. The reality that without a doubt, at the most critical times of the season that awaits, Pete will break our collective fandom heart more than once with runners in scoring position.

He did, of course, swat the game-winning home run that propelled our Mets to victory over the hated Phillies in that playoff game. That was enough to convince even the worst of the haters out there that, from time to time in baseball, you gotta stick with the guy who’s worn your uniform for the past umpety-ump years.

So it was with Pete. Forget the fact that he turned down a long-term deal with the Mets back in 2023, instead hiring Scott “Dr. Evil” Boras as his agent with an eye toward cashing a bajillion-dollar paycheck starting in 2025.

His new deal at 30-odd million for his first of the two seasons to which he has signed is nothing to sneeze at, of course, but it’s probably far short of the lands of milk, honey, and eggs that Boras had to have envisioned on Pete’s behalf. Not to mention his own hefty take of the final prize.

We scoured the sports pages over the past few weeks as we read about the Boras Demands for a Mets return, all seemingly predicated on the idea that his client could opt out of his contract at the end of the season.

I hate these stupid opt-out provisions. You either sign a contract or you don’t. It’s like a pre-nup for baseball: “Hey, let’s agree to be together exclusively for six years unless I think I can get a hotter deal somewhere else after the first or second year. Then I’m outta here, pal.”

But this seems to be another intractable mercenary weapon in sports contracts and we fans will have to learn how to live with it. For our Pete, it’ll just put another layer of pressure on a guy who makes just like Gregg Jeffries whenever he strikes out because he knows it’s another statistic that will affect his marketplace value at the end of the 2025 season.

Gregg Jeffries, the original Mets Grimace.

When he has the chance to opt out.

Part of me was hoping he’d take a deal with some team like the Los Angeles Angels or the Seattle Mariners, where he’d be just another guy in a baseball uniform batting around .260 and making scads of money for no reason other than to make scads of money. At least that way I could’ve seen him in a spring training game out here in the Cactus League, which starts up pretty soon. Last year, we went to see a Los Angeles Dodgers game just to watch them robotically run roughshod over whichever poor sap of a team they played that day.

I’m not sure if we’re going to fork over the cash required to see a Dodgers game this spring. Maybe the Brewers or some other team with a roster featuring no one I recognize to warm up for another season of tuning in to Gary, Keith, Ron, and Howie for all things Mets.

Who knows what’s to come. But at least we have Pete. Until he opts out.