Pete Alonso is left unsigned as the calendar approaches February, and fans are getting antsy about the prospect of the Polar Bear playing elsewhere come April.
While reading fan emails on his Mets podcast, named after ex-Met Rico Brogna, WFAN host Evan Roberts discussed a theory that Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo is the reason that Alonso hired Scott Boras, thus setting in motion the events that have Alonso appearing to have one foot out the door as spring training nears.
The fan behind the email speculated that Alonso, 30, hired Boras on the grounds that he helped facilitate an eight-year, $162 million contract extension with the Mets for his close friend Nimmo.
Alonso, who is the same age as Nimmo when he received an extension in 2022, hired Boras in October 2023 after rejecting a seven-year, $158 million extension with his previous representation, which appears to be a costly mistake.
“He’s actually really, really right,” Roberts said of the theory. “Pete Alonso is offered a contract, a contract that looking back on that he should have taken — seven years, $158 million. He turns it down, Pete’s decision. Pete Alonso now fires his longtime agent. An agency that has been with him … since he was a rookie, before he was the proven Pete Alonso, and he hires Scott Boras. Let’s use our noodle. Why did that happen?
“It happened because Pete Alonso has friends — Brandon Nimmo — who are represented by Scott Boras, who tell him or maybe tell his wife, ‘Hey, you should hire Boras. He’s really good. He just got me an eight-year contract.’ And Pete Alonso says, ‘You’re right, I should.’ So (the fan)’s story is actually a really good one and it’s true because friends impact friends. It is what it is. So if you try to get into the psychology of why Pete Alonso would fire his longtime agent and go to Scott Boras, he’s not splitting the atom here. It makes a lot of sense and it is actually true that Brandon Nimmo would have kind of influence over that “
This theory is an interesting one given the timing, as Mets fans and teammates clamor for Alonso’s return.
The Post’s Jon Heyman reported Tuesday that the Mets had re-engaged in contract negotiations for Alonso, while adding that Francisco Lindor prefers his slugging first baseman return to the Mets.
Cohen recently provided unhappy fans a brutally honest assessment of why Alonso isn’t a Met right now.
“Personally, this has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation. [Juan] Soto was tough, this is worse,” Cohen said Saturday. “I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetric against us, and I feel strongly about it.
In the winter of 2022, Alonso’s prior representation and the Mets negotiated a deal but “weren’t in the same ballpark” at the time when he rejected a seven-year deal.
It appears that they are still not in the same ballpark, with Alonso idly remaining a free agent.
Boras is the same agent who negotiated Soto’s record $765 million contract with the Mets earlier this offseason, showing the sides are willing to work together on complicated pacts.
