After seeing the season end earlier than expected, Mets first baseman Pete Alonso will have to make a choice about his future.
The first baseman said after the Mets’ season-ending 4-0 loss to the Marlins that he will opt out of his contract and re-enter free agency.
The Mets entered Sunday’s regular-season finale with hopes of clinching a wild card spot for the playoffs. Instead, the Reds claimed the sixth and final spot despite losing to the Brewers earlier in the afternoon.
“Playing for this organization, this city, they’ve continued to believe in me,” Alonso told reporters after Sunday’s game. “I love playing here. There’s some great guys in this clubhouse, some great people on the staff. Every single day, it’s been a pleasure coming to work and putting on the orange and blue.
Alonso, signed a two-year, $54 million deal with a player opt-out after this season. He finished the season in which he became the Mets’ all-time home run leader, with a .272/.347/.524 slash line with 38 homers and 126 RBIs. He made his fourth consecutive All-Star team.
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“I’ve really appreciated it and have been nothing but full of gratitude every single day. Nothing is guaranteed, but we’ll see what happens — I’ve loved being a Met. Hopefully, they’ve appreciated me the same.”
The Mets missed the postseason a year after reaching the National League Championship Series and after holding the best record in the majors on June 12 — a stunning collapse for the star-studded club with a major league-high $322.6 million payroll on opening day.
The Reds and Mets entered the day with the same record, but because Cincinnati owned the head-to-head tiebreaker — the Reds won four of six meetings with New York this season — they’re heading to the playoffs for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had been adamant during the series in Miami that the Mets put themselves in that position with their poor second half of the regular season.
New York had the best record in the majors at 45-24 — a season-high 21 games over .500 — after beating Washington 4-3 at home on June 12.
But starter Kodai Senga injured his hamstring in that game, which seemed to mark a turning point in the Mets’ season. They lost their next seven games and 10 of the next 11. Unable to overcome a series of pitching woes, they went 38-55 the rest of the way.
The collapse was an all-too-familiar outcome for many Mets fans, who endured similar endings in 2007 and 2008.
In 2007, New York failed to hold a seven-game division lead with 17 games left in the season, and in 2008, they wasted a 3 1/2-game advantage with 17 games remaining. Their playoff fate then was also pushed to the last game of the season, when losses to the Marlins ended their hopes.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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