David Stearns harped on “run prevention” as the largest flaw of a flawed Mets roster that collapsed for 3 1/2 months and plummeted out of the playoff picture.
The president of baseball operations said the team will have to be “open-minded” concerning its position player group because its defense devolved into such a weakness.
The top in-house Mets free agent is a bat-first slugger whose glove, arm and range regressed as the season wore on.
Have the Mets and their fans seen the last of the Polar Bear?
Stearns said what he has consistently said for two years now — that he would “love” to have Pete Alonso back — but there are not just financial barriers but roster-fit questions that have arisen.
Among 39 qualified first basemen this season, Alonso ranked 38th in Outs Above Average.
In Friday’s loss in Miami — yet another in which the October fate of the club could have been changed — Alonso was not agile enough to spear a line drive that ticked off his glove and he booted a ground ball, snapshots of what became a six-run frame.
Turning 31 in December, Alonso probably will not markedly improve defensively.
And yet, the Mets would not have even been near contention this season without his bat, which slugged 38 home runs and a league-high 41 doubles, posted an .871 OPS that was his strongest since his rookie season and appeared in all 162 games for a second straight season.
“Pete is a great Met,” Stearns said at Monday’s postmortem news conference at Citi Field. “He had a fantastic year. I said this last year and it worked out: I’d love to have Pete back, and we’ll see where the offseason goes.”
Last year, Alonso’s free agency did not go as he planned: He lingered into February, could not find the long-term deal he wanted from the Mets or anyone else, and he returned to Queens on what amounted to a $30 million, one-year deal (with a player option for 2026 that he will decline).
This time around, he is coming off a much stronger offensive season and no longer carries the shackles of a qualifying offer, which would make him more enticing for other teams.
Would he be as enticing for the Mets, whose stated goal is to improve defensively?
It is possible that Alonso, who is beloved in New York and became the franchise’s all-time home run leader this season, is brought back as mainly a designated hitter, a notion about which Stearns did not want to speculate.
“I think how the exact roster construction hypothetically fills out, we’ll deal with that as we get into the offseason,” he said.
But turning Alonso into a frequent or everyday DH would clog a spot that for example, could not be used to spare the legs of Brandon Nimmo.
It also would mean Juan Soto — who registered as the worst qualified right fielder out of 36 in Outs Above Average this season — would return to a position that became a large defensive hole.
More than money could prevent an Alonso reunion with the only franchise he has known.
“I’ve loved being a Met,” Alonso said Sunday. “Hopefully, they’ve appreciated me the same.”
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