Scott Boras seeking megadeal for Pete Alonso, won't rule out extension before free agency: 'We welcome all offers'
Scott Boras, whose agency pending free agent Pete Alonso just switched to with the star first baseman a year from hitting the open market, has weighed in on Alonso's possible payday.
And Boras -- to no one's surprise -- scoffed at the notion that what Alonso gets in terms of both years and dollars should be dictated by the contracts recent star first basemen have signed (either before free agency or after hitting the open market).
"I don’t think those recent contracts, certainly negotiated by others, are really relevant to anything that has to do with what’s going to happen in the future," Boras said on The Show podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman. "Particularly with Pete Alonso."
The two deals that are most often cited when trying to determine what Alonso should get paid are the ones inked by Matt Olson and Freddie Freeman.
Ahead of his age-28 season, Olson signed an eight-year extension with the Braves worth $168 million.
Entering his age-32 season, Freeman signed a six-year, $162 million free agent deal with the Dodgers.
Neither Freeman (a more well-rounded hitter than Alonso) nor Olson (who was younger and two full years from free agency when he signed his deal) is a perfect comp for Alonso, but it's close enough.
But Boras doesn't believe those deals should color what Alonso should get.
"We all work in different markets, and I got Mark Teixeira a contract where he became a world champion with the Yankees for $180 million in 2007," Boras said. "I also understand I got Prince Fielder a contract at [$214 million] in 2011. There are different markets, different representation, and different dynamics you look at."
Teixeira's deal was a great one for the Yanks, with him hitting .248/.343/.479 with 206 homers during his eight years there, though two of the last three years of that deal (after the first baseman turned 34) were ugly -- with Teixeira slugging under .400.
Fielder's nine-year deal with the Tigers worked out for the first two seasons, but he started to fall off in 2014 after being traded to the Rangers and retired after 2016 at just 32 years old -- four seasons before his contract was set to expire.
As far as Alonso's Mets future, while it's assumed that he'll likely reach free agency now that he's hired Boras to represent him, the agent won't shut the door on the star reaching a deal before it gets that far.
"We welcome all offers," Boras said. "We certainly present them [and] discuss them with the players we represent and we really try to have as open a dialogue as we can and also have an exchange of information, because … even if you don’t get a deal done, it helps the parties understand one another. So we invite negotiations, we invite discussions [and] we invite offers."
Alonso was peppered with questions about his future throughout the 2023 season, and repeatedly said that he loves playing for the Mets and being in New York, going as far as to call the city his home.
There was some trade buzz surrounding Alonso during the deadline as the Mets dealt Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and others, but SNY's Andy Martino reported soon after that it was "hard to find anyone in the Citi Field offices" who believed the Mets would trade Alonso this offseason.
Shortly after being introduced as the Mets' president of baseball operations, David Stearns weighed in on Alonso's future, saying he expected him to be the team's Opening Day first baseman in 2024.
Regardless, there are some who continue to suggest Alonso could be traded this offseason, though it feels extremely unlikely.
And Boras weighed in on the trade buzz.
"I think it’s hard to say for a franchise, that if you want to win, you trade these players," he said. "I just think it’s a very difficult thing for ownership and baseball operations to explain."
