NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Before his news conference Wednesday to wrap up an exhilarating season, New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns bumped into at Citi Field.
鈥淚 told him I was about to answer a lot of questions about him. He told me, `Good luck,'" Stearns said with a grin.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a great Met. I hope we have him back. I think we both understand this is a process and everyone鈥檚 got their own interests and Pete deserves to go out into the free agent market and see what鈥檚 out there and then ultimately make the best choice for him and his family.鈥�
The slugger's immediate future is one important issue for the Mets, coming off a surprising playoff run that ended Sunday with a
鈥淚 think we probably ran out of gas a little bit. We had pushed our guys really hard from June 1 on because we needed to,鈥� Stearns said. 鈥淓very single game in the regular season mattered and then clearly every single game in the postseason mattered. And that鈥檚 part of it. We also ran into a really, really talented Dodgers team that was playing about as good a baseball as you could play.鈥�
To overcome those Dodgers next season, not to mention Philadelphia and Atlanta in their own division, the Mets will need to restock the pitching staff.
Luis Severino (11-7, 3.91 ERA) and Jose Quintana (10-10, 3.75) can become free agents. Sean Manaea (12-6, 3.47) seems likely to decline a $13.5 million player option for 2025 and join them on the open market.
Those three veterans combined for 94 regular-season starts and 10 more in the playoffs as New York finished two wins short of the World Series.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 new to us. We faced a similar task last offseason. We鈥檙e going to have to replace innings,鈥� Stearns said. 鈥淐ertainly part of that could potentially be from some of those guys returning, or we may look elsewhere. But we鈥檙e going to have to add starting pitching. We鈥檙e going to have to add multiple starters. We understand that. We went into last offseason with the same need and I think we鈥檒l be able to do it.鈥�
Stearns has been particularly good at finding pitching, not just this year with the Mets but going back to his time
He brought in Severino and Manaea last winter on short-term deals, and both delivered in a big way.
鈥淭here are no hard-and-fast rules for me,鈥� Stearns said. 鈥淚f we look at the history of long-term investments with pitchers, it is not overwhelmingly a rosy picture. But there are pitchers who have gone into their mid- or late-30s and pitched very well. And so if we think we can identify that, then there could be exceptions.鈥�
Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Blake Snell are top-of-the-rotation starters available in free agency. Burnes, who turned 30 on Tuesday, was drafted and developed by the Brewers while Stearns was in charge. The right-hander won the 2021 NL Cy Young Award with Milwaukee before getting traded to Baltimore last winter.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 too early to determine exactly where we鈥檙e going to take our shots,鈥� Stearns said. 鈥淚 would expect us to be active in free agency.鈥�
Once contract options are decided next month, New York will probably have more than $100 million coming off a major league-high 2024 payroll of $332 million under owner Steve Cohen.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got financial flexibility. It means that pretty much the entirety of the player universe is potentially accessible to us. That鈥檚 an enormous opportunity. I envision us taking advantage of that opportunity and being aggressive in certain spaces,鈥� Stearns said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also not going to do anything that hamstrings us in future years and prevents us from continually adding, supplementing to our core group.鈥�
Alonso earned a $20.5 million salary this season and batted .240 with 34 homers, 88 RBIs and a .788 OPS while playing in all 162 regular-season games. Those numbers at the plate were down from previous years, but the was productive during the postseason and He also drew 12 walks in 13 games.
鈥淲e have great memories from this run,鈥� Stearns said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also time for us to begin to move forward and see what we can do to build on this to ensure we have the type of sustainable competitiveness 鈥� true sustainable competitiveness 鈥� that鈥檚 eluded this organization for a long time.鈥�
Alonso turns 30 in December and is represented by high-profile agent Scott Boras.
鈥淲ho Pete is as a person is important. What he means to this franchise is important. Who he is as a player is also important and what he contributes on the field. There鈥檚 no magic formula to this," Stearns said.
鈥淧ete and I frankly have never really talked about his contract face-to-face. I think those conversations are best left generally with a player鈥檚 representative. But Pete and I talked about the team plenty. He鈥檚 very invested in our group. Certainly was very invested in this team this year and obviously got some enormous hits for us down the stretch.鈥�
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AP freelance writer Jerry Beach contributed to this report.
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AP MLB:
Mike Fitzpatrick, The Associated Press
