Just after the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday, the team’s star, Pete Alonso, announced that he would opt out for free agency. This move quickly transformed the interaction around the consistent power bat. However, David Stearns also wasted no time and highlighted his plan by saying, “Pete is a great Met. He had a fantastic year,” Stearns said in a clip posted to SNY. “I said this last year and it worked out, but I’d love to have Pete back and we’ll see where the offseason goes”, he added. However, the team’s disappointing finish after a season where Stearns invested largely in win-now players like Juan Soto only raised concerns related to whether Alonso’s future lies with the Mets or not.

After the news, Jon Heyman of the Bleacher Report highlighted that multiple teams could come forward as realistic landing places for Alonso, naming the Red Sox and Yankees among them. “And at that point, the Red Sox would be heading into free agency with a projected starting infield of Marcelo Mayer off a wrist surgery, Triston Casas off a ruptured patellar tendon, Ceddanne Rafaela, who is better as a center fielder and probably Kristian Campbell after what ended up being a disastrous and truncated rookie season.” For the Red Sox, the equation is simple. With Triston Casas’ health issues and first base being an inconsistent point all season, Alonso can provide stability and star power.

MLB insider Jon Heyman highlighted that the Yankees are also a suitable match. Appearing on the BR YouTube channel on Wednesday, he said: “The Red Sox need a first baseman. Well, that’s certainly an opinion. Maybe that’ll be the way it will go. Alonzo to Red Sox. That is a possibility. That’s one of the teams I’ve got marked down here… Yankees are a logical fit in the Bronx… I’m going to say that these teams are the teams potentially for Alonzo, other than the Mets… Houston, Boston, Seattle, Texas, and the Yankees.”

That aligns with Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller, who has named the Yankees as the top landing spot: “The biggest question here isn’t the roster fit or willingness of the team to make the investment. It’s whether Alonso would be willing to do this to Mets fans… And after a few years of hoping for the best and not getting a whole lot out of late-career Anthony Rizzo and Paul Goldschmidt, the Yankees could be looking to make a long-term investment at first base for the first time since signing Mark Teixeira in 2009.”

So, the big picture in this situation is that Alonso’s free agency will not just be related to the star’s next deal; it is related to where David Stearns’s home run leader will take his skill in the most heated MLB market. Alex Cora’s team needs its first baseman, and Alonso’s wife is also from the same city, which only raised the scope for the Red Sox. On the contrary, the Yankees are looking at a transition at their first base, and the team could look for a long-term fix.

While the management weighs Pete Alonso’s free agency and the enhanced interest from other teams, former stars are also weighing in, specifically why the Mets stumbled so badly in 2025 despite boasting one of the league’s most talented rosters.

Ex-MLB MVP Mo Vaughn pinpoints why the Pete Alonso’s Mets collapsed and missed the playoffs

Former American League MVP and longtime Met critic Mo Vaughn thinks that the franchise’s postseason miss was not about the effort or star power, but rather about focus and mentality. Addressing Fox News Digital, Vaughn said that the Mets’ deep playoff run in 2024 may have depleted the team’s edge heading into 2025. “They went all the way to the league championship series last year. They knew how to do that. … And what happens is, you spend a lot of energy getting to that point. Now you’ve got another season, but you’re not as sharp,” Vaughn described.

He pointed out that just a single extra win would have been sufficient to push the Mets into the postseason over Cincinnati. To him, it was not about the lack of talent or the laziness, but a failure to uphold “fine-tuned concentration” over 162 games. Vaughn also applauds Juan Soto’s first season in Queens, a campaign that saw him produce .283 with 43 homers, 105 RBIs, and A National League-leading 38 stolen bases. Regardless of Soto’s expertise, Vaughn states that the Mets must “reconfigure their brains” if they want to match their talent with consistent October baseball.

The takeaway: New York has the elements, but without the discipline that Vaughn describes, they risk squandering Pete Alonso’s prime and Soto’s peak years while competitors such as the Yankees and Red Sox are fully fueled up for a sprint.