David Stearns won the battle with Pete Alonso, but the Mets might lose the war

Most of the high-end free agents are off the board, but a few remain, perhaps the biggest of which is Pete Alonso. The four-time All-Star has been searching for his big payday after six strong seasons with the New York Mets, but has failed to come up with one.

Alonso's market depleted to the point where he expressed a willingness to take a shorter-term high-AAV deal to stay with the Mets. Even after Alonso's confession, no deal has come to fruition.

It's abundantly clear that Stearns was right in the sense that Alonso is not worth the massive contract he was initially seeking. No team is willing to give him that kind of offer. While that battle was won, the Mets might end up losing the overall free-agency war with one of the most prolific home run hitters in the franchise's history.

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Mets were right about Pete Alonso's value, but would be worse off if he departs

Immediately after the team re-signed Jesse Winker, a report from SNY's Andy Martino emerged saying that the Mets were pivoting to their Alonso Plan B, and were expecting the slugger to sign elsewhere. If true, it's hard to see this being a good thing for the Mets.

Passing on giving Alonso a massive six or seven-year deal makes sense, obviously, but if Alonso is truly open to a three-year, high-AAV deal with opt-outs, why aren't the Mets, a team with money to spend, jumping at that?

Alonso is far from a perfect player, but he's a big bopper that the Mets could use even after signing Juan Soto. He's coming off his worst season, and yet, still hit 34 home runs, drove in 88 runs, and hit a couple of massive home runs in the postseason as well. Since debuting back in 2019, Alonso ranks second only behind Aaron Judge with his 226 home runs.

If the Mets let Alonso walk, it's tough to see where they turn. A Vladimir Guerrero Jr. trade would be the dream scenario, but that's unlikely. The Mets could sign Anthony Santander to play first base, but he has just 13 games played at that position. They could sign Alex Bregman to play third base and move Mark Vientos across the diamond, but would they really spend big and forfeit draft capital to sign Bregman instead of just re-signing Alonso? The Mets could also choose to roll with what they have, and see if a guy like Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña, or Ronny Mauricio can break out, but for a team trying to win a World Series, that doesn't sound super appealing.

The Mets might have been right about Alonso's value on the open market, but with it being depleted, shouldn't they be open to bringing him back? If they let him walk, especially on a short-term deal, it truly does feel as if they'll be worse off for it. Hopefully, for the sake of both Alonso and the Mets, the two sides can defy the suddenly long odds and come to an agreement.