LOS ANGELES — Pete Alonso seemed stunned his season had ended and perhaps his time with the New York Mets.
“I’m just kind of shell-shocked that the season’s over, because once you get on this post-season run, you kind of don’t really think that it’s going to end ever because we overcame so much and we perform really well in big spots,” Alonso said after the Mets were eliminated Sunday night with a 10-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in NL Championship Series Game 6.
Alonso hit .273 with four homers and 10 RBIs in the post-season. After earning $20.5 million this year, the first baseman is eligible for free agency for the first time and turns 30 in December.
“I love this team. I love this organization. This fanbase has treated not just myself, but my family so, so well,” Alonso said. “I love New York. I love this team. I love playing in Queens. This group is really special and the memories that we’ve created together are just, like, wow. This is why we play baseball, to be able to get to have that togetherness, to be able to go far, face adversity and overcome it. … I want more and more moments like this.”
New York started the season 0-5 and was 22-33 before the late-May players’ only meeting that followed the Dodgers series sweep at Citi Field. The Mets turned around their season and finished 89-73, earning the NL’s final wild card spot with a win at Atlanta on the day after the regular season was scheduled to end. They rallied in the ninth inning of Game 3 to win an NL Wild Card Series, then upset NL East champion Philadelphia in the Division Series to reach the LCS for the first time since 2015.
“It’s not easy to come through so much adversity, but we kept finding ways to get the job done,” first-year manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this series. Now we’re going home. But, like I said, this should be our expectations moving forward every year, we should be playing games deep into October.”
In the fourth season after Steve Cohen bought the Mets from the Wilpons, New York led the major leagues with a $332 million payroll and is line to pay a $96 million luxury tax.
Pitchers Jose Quintana and Luis Severino also can become free agents and Sean Manaea has a player option he could turn down to go free.
“It was an amazing roller-coaster,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “We accomplished a lot as a team, as individuals. We became family. We overcame a lot of things and we stuck together, so I truly believe there is something good happening here. It doesn’t feel good to lose. It’s going to sit here with me for awhile but I feel like this year made me a better person, a player and I’ve grown a lot.”
Lindor is signed through 2031 and outfielder Brandon Nimmo through 2030.
Nimmo hopes Alonso will reach a new deal with the Mets.
“He means a lot to the fanbase and to this team and we’d love to see him back here,” Nimmo said, “but also going through that process I understand that it is a business and he will end up doing what’s best for him and his family.”
Nimmo said the stability of heading into a second year under president of baseball operations David Stearns and Mendoza will be an advantage over last offseason.
“I really think that this is kind of the jumping-off point. We want to set this as a standard now,” Nimmo said. “There’s no surprising people. I think people are going to be a little more wary of us next year to start things off and that comes with its own territory, where everybody’s going to have their A-game on to try and beat you.”
J.D. Martinez, another potential free agent, looked forward to the core returning. Asked what the future was for him, the 37-year-old gave a one-word reply: “Pickleball.”
