Pete Alonso signed a five-year, $155 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles after the Mets allowed him to walk in free agency.
Prior to re-signing with the New York Mets ahead of the 2025 MLB season, first baseman Pete Alonso reportedly took a shot at Stearns during contract negotiations.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Alonso told Stearns, “When my career is being evaluated for the Hall of Fame years from now, you’ll still be fiddling with your f–king formulas.”
That confrontation set a tone that never recovered.
Despite the dig at Stearns’ affinity for analytics, Alonso ended up signing a two-year, $54 million contract with a player option for 2026.
Alonso was coming off a down year, slashing.240/.329/.459 with 34 home runs and 88 RBI in 2024.
After signing the two-year deal with an opt-out after the first season, Alonso played all 162 games for the second straight season, batted a career-best.272 with 38 home runs, 41 doubles and 126 RBIs.
Stearns remained unmoved by the resurgence.
David Stearns had little interest in bringing Alonso back—he refused to give him a long-term deal back in the 2024-25 offseason and didn’t even bother to participate in Alonso’s sweepstakes this past winter.
The Mets signed Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million contract to play first base, though Polanco had never played first base before in his career and had trouble staying healthy.
Polanco suffered an injury during the second game of the season, an Achilles issue that lingered until April 14, when the Mets placed him on the IL.
Meanwhile, Alonso landed exactly what he’d sought.
Alonso signed with the Baltimore Orioles on a five-year, $155 million contract, ending his seven-year run with the Mets.
The 31-year-old is off to a slow start, slashing.225/.329/.444 with seven homers and 21 RBI, and the Orioles have struggled as a whole to the tune of a 17-21 record.
The Mets are scuffling to an even greater degree, their 14-23 mark tied for the worst record in the majors.
The players Stearns brought in to replace those names have not yet panned out—infielder Bo Bichette has a meager WAR of 0.1 despite leading the NL in at-bats, Marcus Semien acquired in the Nimmo trade has a 71 OPS+ on the season, and Jorge Polanco signed to replace some of Alonso’s production has been limited to just 14 games played because of injury with a slash line of.179/.246/.286.
Alonso, reading between the lines last winter, had tried to warn Stearns where this was headed.
During a meeting at his Tampa club with Steve Cohen and Stearns, Alonso told the baseball president, “When my career is being evaluated for the Hall of Fame years from now, you’ll still be fiddling with your f–king formulas.”
While Alonso used Stearns’ analytics obsession as a slight, he also told Stearns he planned on using analytics and biomechanics to be back to his best soon.
Alonso later told the New York Post, “I can’t look back and be disgruntled. I have some of the best memories wearing that uniform, being in the locker room with those guys.”
In the viral moment last winter, negotiations between Alonso and Stearns remained tense throughout the off-season after Alonso declined a seven-year, $158 million extension in 2023 and hired agent Scott Boras to seek a bigger payday on the open market.
Alonso rejected a seven-year, $158 million contract extension from the Mets in the summer of 2023, and after making $20.5 million in arbitration the next year, turned down a one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer from the Mets and hit free agency with high hopes.
A long-term deal never materialized, leaving Alonso with limited choices, though the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays expressed interest, coming back to the Mets was always the likeliest possibility, even as owner Steve Cohen publicly expressed frustration with the trajectory of negotiations.
Alonso lingered on the open market longer than many other top players.
Stearns acknowledged the situation, saying, “I’m extremely disappointed that we are in this situation.”
David Stearns’ feet are being held to the fire, though Steve Cohen recently said that Stearns will not pay for the recent failures with his job, suggesting Stearns would remain through the duration of his deal.
After opting not to re-sign Alonso, who ended up inking a five-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the Mets clearly wanted to go in a different direction at first base.