The man who invented the term “pillow contract” just landed one for his most famous remaining free agent.
Pete Alonso is returning to the Mets on a deal with an opt-out after one year that will pay him $30 million in 2025, according to multiple reports.
It appears that Alonso and his agent Scott Boras catastrophically overestimated the slugger’s market value. The first baseman declined a seven-year, $158 million offer in 2023, and was seeking a long-term deal this winter. The Mets have nearly limitless money under new owner Steve Cohen and are used to dealing with Boras, as they gave Boras client Juan Soto a record $765 million contract in December.
The question with Alsonso appeared to be an issue of how the Mets—and baseball more broadly—valued low-defense corner infielders. (Add Alonso’s age, 30, to his vanishing market.)
Now, Alonso will have to hope for stellar production in 2025. Boras coined the phrase “pillow contract” 15 years ago after he negotiated a one-year deal for Adrian Beltre that saw him earn a five-year, $96 million dollar contract after an excellent year with the Red Sox. In other words, his one-year deal was a soft landing.
Mets owner Steve Cohen lamented the state of the Alonso negotiations last week.
“This has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation,” Cohen said at a fan event. “I mean, Soto was tough—this is worse. … I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. It’s highly asymmetric against us, and I feel strongly about it. I will never say no,” he said of Alonso returning. “But the reality is we’re moving forward, and as we continue to bring in players, the reality is it becomes harder to fit Pete into what is a very expensive group of players we already have.”
Alonso has been a popular player in New York, whacking 226 homers in six seasons and almost never missing a game. Those 226 home runs trail only Aaron Judge over that period, but MLB teams have become highly averse to paying slugging corner infielders, particularly ones in their 30s like Alonso.
Though the 34 homers he hit last year is still an elite figure, they represented a career low for a full season.
