Phil

Taking off my Yankees hat for a minute to assess the Mets situation. The Pete Alonso situation captures everything about why David Stearns is not the secret genius we were told he was, and why he is, simply, a terrible GM. You don’t let a Forever Guy, the franchise leader in HR, walk to another team. At least not without a good reason. And the reasons Stearns gave for not even making an offer to Pete simply don’t hold up. They reveal that he might just be an idiot. 1. “His defense is sub-par.” Sure, but then you signed Bo Bichette to play a position he never played, and he was already a terrible defender at the position he did play. And then you signed a roleplayer to play 1B who hadn’t even played 1B before. So even if you prioritized defense, you had no plan to make that happen. 2. “He won’t age well.” Pete never gets hurt, plays 162 games, and has been the most consistent right handed power hitter in baseball since coming into the league. He’s a lock for 35-45 HR every year with an .800 to .850 OPS. There’s a reason he’s the franchise leader in HR. Homegrown guys like that come along once in a generation. 3. “We didn’t want to hamstring ourselves with a long term contract, especially because we already did that with Lindor and Soto.” Understandable, but the Orioles only signed him through his Age 35 season. That’s a bargain in this day and age. Aaron Judge, Ohtani, Mookie, Vlad Jr., Soto, Trout, Harper, and Machado are all locked up through Age 39 and beyond. If you’re scared of signing an elite 1B to a 5 year deal through Age 35, you shouldn’t be a major league GM. Simply put, all of Stearns’ reasons were complete BS. Now I can think of some reasons to keep Pete: 1. Chicks dig the Forever Guy - Win or lose, some fans will always buy tickets to see an elite homegrown player they grew up with. Investing in someone like that is a good business decision. Insurance in case you don’t win. There’s something special about seeing a no-name prospect become a superstar over the course of his rookie year. Fans, especially kids, have been on this journey with Pete since he broke Aaron Judge’s rookie home run record in 2019. Obviously winning matters most. But take this from a Yankees fan. When we were mediocre and in between playoff windows in 2013-2014, we still paid to go see Jeter and Mariano. 2. The Quest for 500 - Pete is on a borderline HOF track. Every HR he would have hit at Citi Field would have been a new record. Unless he gets hurt—and so far he never gets hurt—he had a really good chance to get to 500. Why take that away from fans? 3. The Mets have never had a Forever Guy. Seaver. Straw. Doc. DeGrom. None of those guys stayed with the Mets. Pete not only had a chance to be a face of the franchise, but THE face of the franchise, for decades to come. Look, I’m not emotionally invested in the Mets. I don’t hate them, even if I don’t root for them. And as a baseball fan, I think every team deserves a homegrown hero, win or lose. I count dozens of Mets fans amongst my family and friends. It’s painful to see what Pete on the Orioles has done to them. There is certainly an argument to be made for being ruthless, doing whatever it takes to win. But David Stearns didn’t do that either. Instead of being a secret genius, it seems he had no plan at all. Now that they’re a dumpster fire, it doesn’t surprise me that Pete Alonso is the outlet through which fans are venting their frustration.