When Sal Licata broke the news to Brandon Tierney that Anthony Santander’s deal with Toronto was five years with an option worth more than $90 million, BT’s reply was, ‘wow, that’s cheap.’
Even at five years for $90 million, which is $18mm a year, perhaps for Santander that was more valuable than maybe a one-year deal worth a few more million and then try again – and that brought Sal back to Pete Alonso, who is now unquestionably one of the top two players still unsigned.
“If Santander is getting that, what do you think Pete is gonna get? I'm not saying Santander's better than Pete, but he certainly could do more things – switch-hitter, maybe more versatile defensively,” Sal said. “Pete's more impactful, but still, if he got five years for 90 and the Mets offered Pete three years for 70, think about that – I don’t think this bodes well for Pete.”
“I think he should get more because he's the more established player, but I don't think it does either,” BT replied. “What I think it probably tells you, and I'm not even a huge Pete believer, is that it’s gonna have to be an unexpected team for one year and big money, so he can re-establish market value – which I still don't think would change – or maybe the Mets and Pete can find common ground if he can swallow his ego.”
Hoff posited that maybe Alonso’s market is slow because no one wants to compete with Steve Cohen, and they’ll wait until the Mets are officially out (likely by signing another 1B), and BT can see it as an idea.
“I’ve thought about it, and said it last week when talking about Vlad, where, if you're Toronto, why would you trade him to the Mets? Well, you would trade him to the Mets if it's communicated to you that they’re gonna offer more, we want Guerrero, so it probably behooves you to take a few prospects because we have more money and we're gonna spend it and we're gonna win the bid,” BT said. “So, I think that that is a mindset that very well could, or already has, permeated Major League Baseball that dissuades teams from doing things that they might be inclined to do, because they know that Steve could or will slam the door in their face.”
“I don't think that that's the case with Alonso, I just feel like Pete priced himself way too high and a lot of teams just lost interest,” Sal replied, “and I don't believe he's gonna get a better offer than what the Mets offered. So then it's gonna be on him to decide what situation, if he does have other options, fits him best that he would want to go for.”