Bill Madden: Everybody’s happy Pete Alonso is back with Mets, but Polar Bear needs big season

So Pete Alonso is backmost with the Mets and everyone is happy.

The Polar Bear is blessed due to the fact that helium ne'er wanted to permission the Mets, particularly aft helium grudgingly came to recognize helium didn’t person a market. Steve Cohen is blessed due to the fact that helium got to appease Mets fans successful bringing backmost their favourite lad — astatine his price. David Stearns is blessed due to the fact that the Alonso declaration is wrong his analytics creed of 3 oregon less years. And Scott Boras is blessed due to the fact that adjacent though helium failed mightily connected his committedness to get Alonso substantially much than the 7 years, $158 cardinal connection from the Mets helium turned down successful June 2023, helium was capable to prevention look by getting him an AAV of $30 cardinal for 2025 that is the highest of immoderate archetypal baseman successful the game.

But marque nary mistake, unless Alonso has a melodramatic turnaround play successful 2025, his quality to opt retired aft the archetypal twelvemonth of the two-year, $54 cardinal woody volition beryllium moot. He ne'er realized helium had truthful overmuch going against him successful this dialog with the Mets: (1) He was coming disconnected his worst season, (2) each the metrics showed subordinate successful decline, and (3) helium was shackled by a qualifying connection from the Mets and nary teams were consenting to ammunition retired a large bucks 5-6 twelvemonth declaration for a 30-year-old 1 dimensional archetypal baseman — and besides sacrifice a 2nd and 5th circular draught prime arsenic compensation to the Mets. At slightest if helium decides to opt retired aft this season, the qualifying connection goes away, but he’ll beryllium a twelvemonth older with the aforesaid negatives.

A bully “one dimensional” examination to Alonso successful 2024 is Chris Carter, the hulking archetypal baseman for the Brewers successful 2016. Alonso deed 34 homers, struck retired 172 times and had an OPS of .788 past year. When Carter was 30 successful 2016, helium deed .222 and led the majors with 206 strikeouts, but besides led the league successful homers with 41, drove successful 94 runs and had an OPS of .821. Yet astatine the extremity of the play helium was released by the Brewers. And the GM who released him was David Stearns.

That should springiness Alonso a beauteous bully thought wherever he’d inactive beryllium close present if Cohen hadn’t bowed to the pleas of Mets fans. And you person to judge Stearns was besides looking guardant to those qualifying connection compensation draught picks erstwhile Alonso signed elsewhere. Indeed, the players person travel to recognize what a handicap these qualifying offers tin beryllium to their escaped agency. Maybe not for the apical tier players similar Juan Soto, Max Fried and Corbin Burnes, but 2nd tier players similar Alonso find their markets constricted arsenic truthful galore of baseball’s analytically-inclined GMs contiguous are fiercely protective of their draught picks.

Somewhat surprisingly, the owners really offered to bash distant with qualifying offers precocious successful the 2022 corporate bargaining negotiations with the players successful speech for an planetary draft, but the national flatly rejected it. The reason, I was told, was the Latin players are peculiarly opposed to it aft the buscones successful their autochthonal countries convinced them they could get truthful overmuch much connected the unfastened market.

IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD

When it comes to that much-anticipated, much-debated caller domed stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays successful St. Petersburg, you tin buss it goodbye. Now the question is whether Tampa Bay volition besides beryllium kissing the Rays goodbye themselves. No 1 is saying it retired loud, but it’s go wide Rays proprietor Stu Sternberg has concluded the unfeasibility of going done with his stock of $700 cardinal for the planned $1.3 cardinal redevelopment program successful the Historic Gas Plant District of St. Petersburg adjacent to the Rays’ contiguous hurricane ravaged Tropicana Field home. “Having the wealth and putting it successful are 2 antithetic things,” Sternberg told the media astatine the owners meetings successful Palm Beach past week. Privately, Sternberg told the owners due to the fact that of the delays successful approving the bonds for the stadium which volition incur an estimated further outgo of $150 million, the St. Pete woody is each but dead. And seemingly St. Pete politician Ken Welch, the driving unit down the caller stadium, which would beryllium the centerpiece of a monolithic redevelopment project, is OK with that. “We volition not prosecute a woody astatine immoderate cost,” Welch said past Tuesday. “The greatness and aboriginal of St. Pete does not beryllium solely connected this deal.” At slightest St. Pete officials person yet travel up with a timeline and approved the funds to repair hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field for the commencement of the 2026 season. For this season, the Rays volition beryllium playing their location games astatine Steinbrenner Field successful Tampa, wherever I’m told, the play and radical income tickets are astir each sold retired contempt the Rays doubling the price. What needs to hap present is for Sternberg to merchantability the squad — Rays fans are bushed of him investing thing successful the squad and perpetually trading disconnected their champion players erstwhile they commencement to go expensive. But bleak and uncertain arsenic things look close now, Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred does not privation to suffer Tampa Bay, the No. 11 media market, which is wherefore the anticipation is for a heavy pouch proprietor (or owners) from Tampa to look and the Tampa stadium program adjacent Ybor City tin beryllium revived. “That’s wherever the Rays request to be,” a shot idiosyncratic who grew up successful Tampa told me. “Ybor City, walking region from the stadium, would go 1 of the large attractions successful the country. It would beryllium location tally for everyone.” Also, waiting successful the wings is the Orlando Dreamers group, organized by the precocious Orlando Magic CEO Pat Williams and Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, who’ve moving tirelessly to bring large league shot to the Magic Kingdom.