NEW YORK — It appears Pete Alonso is going, going, gone.
The first Amazin’ Day fan fest at Citi Field did not bring with it a dramatic resolution to Alonso’s free agent saga — but did seem to confirm the New York Mets’ most popular and prolific power hitter is likely to sign elsewhere as spring training nears.
“We’ve made a significant offer to Pete,” Mets owner Steve Cohen explained during a fireside chat with President of Baseball Operations David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza. “This has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation.
“Soto was tough,” Cohen said, referring to talks that ended with New York signing star slugger Juan Soto to a record 15-year, $765 million deal last month. “This is worse.”
Alonso, who like Soto is represented by agent Scott Boras, has been a fan favorite since arriving in 2019, when he hit a rookie-record 53 home runs. The 30-year-old first baseman has 226 homers, third-most in franchise history, and saved New York from playoff elimination last October with a go-ahead drive off Milwaukee closer Devin Williams in Game 3 of an NL Wild Card Series.
A standing-room-only crowd in the Piazza Club chanted Alonso’s name as Cohen and Stearns fielded a question about the Alonso negotiations from moderator Gary Cohen, the Mets’ play-by-play announcer on SNY.
“I think we all love Pete and we’ve said that many times,” said Stearns, who spoke before Steve Cohen. “I think as we’ve gone through this process, we’ve continued to express that. And we also understand that this is a business and Pete, as a free agent, deserves the right and has the right — earned the privilege, really, to see what’s out there.
“We also feel really good about the young players who are coming through our system,” Stearns said to some light boos. “We saw that last year. And that’s not always the most popular opinion, but we saw that last year. And we’re going to need to see it again.”
Alonso and fellow Boras client Alex Bregman are the most notable players still unsigned from what has been a cool free agent market for corner infielders. Former Arizona first baseman Christian Walker ($60 million for three years with Houston) is the only corner infielder to ink a multiyear contract. Josh Bell, Carlos Santana and former 2022 NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt all signed one-year deals.
“I don’t like the structures that are being presented to us,” Steve Cohen said. “It’s highly asymmetric against us and I feel…