Seven players have stolen exactly 17 bases in the course of their New York Mets tenure. Only one within that highly specific cohort has been exceedingly efficient as a basestealer. In fact, that player can claim the third-highest stolen base percentage of any Met who has stolen at least 17 bases as a Met. Yet that very same player, who has been caught stealing only TWICE amid six seasons of daily play, can be judged as leaning a little too far toward second these days and may very well be setting himself to get picked off first. One is tempted to ask, where’s the first base coach? Why isn’t he telling this runner to not stray more than a couple of steps from the bag we instinctively think of as his?
Because it is January, there is no blaming Antoan Richardson. His kind of coaching isn’t in effect prior to Spring Training. Still, somebody should be going over the signs with our baserunner and giving him the advice that will ensure he stays where he oughta. Regardless of the rule changes of a couple of years ago, somebody’s gonna throw over and somebody’s going to nudge him from the base that’s became his long ago.
The Mets held an event called Amazin’ Day on Saturday. Long ago, its existence would have been considered amazing. Other teams held fanfests. Other ownerships saw the benefits. The folks who used to own the Mets didn’t until the very end of their tenure. Then came a pandemic and a sale. Momentum must have been slow to put the pieces of a winter confab together again, because after 2020, there was no sign of one at Citi Field. This year, five years since the previous iteration, the Mets held one. The present ownership not only signed off on it but planted itself at the center of the story on the minds of Mets fans in attendance and following along via social media.
Steve Cohen was on a panel…let’s just pause and reflect on that alone. The people who owned the Mets before Steve and Alex Cohen kept as low a profile as possible when they sensed people who love the Mets were nearby. Not Steve. Not Alex. They show up. They pose for pictures. They open up about pressing issues when asked.
Steve was asked, by panel emcee Gary Cohen, about the “elephant in the room,” the pending contractual status of free agent Pete Alonso. “The Polar Bear in the room” would have been the preferred framing, but you can’t script everything. Whatever species was invoked, the question had to be posed. The fans were chanting “We Want Pete” at Steve, David Stearns and Carlos Mendoza. The fans who paid to get into a ballpark two-plus months before any ballgames wanted Pete’s power and Pete’s presence. Pete’s 17 steals in 19 lifetime regular season attempts (along with two of two in the 2024 postseason) might not have been on anybody’s mind, though value added is value added. A Polar Bear who picks his spots on the basepaths is unusual, never mind the spot — on the outside looking in — where this Polar Bear has found himself this winter.
If Steve Cohen were more of a showman, a curtain would have parted and revealed the object of the crowd’s affections. Maybe he’d even be wearing a Polar Bear costume, shedding it along with the uncertainty regarding his future professional residence. Pen would be put to paper and Pete Alonso, Met for life (or at least a few more years), would have elevated the vibes from immaculate to unimpeachable. There’d be nothing Steve Cohen could do wrong.
Instead, Steve was the Steve we’ve sort of come to know since he and Alex replaced Fred and Jeff Wilpon in the fall of 2020. He was candid, telling Mets fans not exactly all they wanted to hear, but telling it in a fashion that could be interpreted as like it is. It was Steve’s version.
The offer the Mets made to bring Pete back?
“Significant.”
The response from Team Alonso, which is to say Scott Boras, an agent the name of whom we only sometimes wish we knew?
“I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. It’s highly asymmetric against us.”
Chances for resolution?
“I will never say no. There’s always the possibility. but the reality is, we’re moving forward. As we continue to bring in players, the reality is it becomes harder to fit Pete into what is a very expensive group of players that we already have.”
Steve’s version, whether it was a snapshot of the drying-Polaroid ilk or something more permanent — beat hearsay and speculation. It’s wild the owner spoke so openly. Neither Wilpon would have done it in such circumstances. Nor would have a Doubleday, de Roulet or Payson. Still, Steve’s version won’t be Scott’s version, and Pete’s version will be Pete’s. Ultimately, he’s the holder of the pen, the person who will have to consent to what’s on the paper, whatever its contents, wherever it’s offered for his signature.
Our version is wanting a first baseman who makes some plays that don’t seem makeable on grounders in the hole and throws in the dirt, a slugger who delivers 34 home runs in what’s viewed as an off year, a clutch performer who verified his status in the most do-or-die baseball situation imaginable, a literal lineup constant, a homegrown star who burrowed into our collective heart as a rookie and never left, and a certifiable sports icon in a town where becoming and remaining one ain’t that easy. Dude also steals a few bases a year and almost never gets caught; I’d be shocked if Boras hasn’t worked his client’s 89.5% success rate into his contract pitch.
Still, nobody’s irreplaceable on a roster. Get a guy with those credentials, and maybe we won’t miss Pete Alonso on the New York Mets. Got another of him handy?
Amazin’ Day also featured a slew of current and past Mets on hand to bring January joy to the shivering faithful. No free agents still out there for the taking were on the program. Thus, while fans could line up for autographs of and photographs with those inked in as 2025 Mets, Alonso wasn’t in the building, except as conversation odder. Someday he’ll be eligible to be feted under the heading of Met Alumni, but it’s too soon for that designation. We’d rather none among MLB’s array of Met opponents scoop him up, either. February’s knocking. Negotiations really need to resolve. Pete’s been nabbed stealing second twice, but he’s never been picked off first. I can’t bear to think about what that would look like, even if we’ve been braced for the idea that it might happen.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, the other players with exactly 17 career stolen bases as Mets are Rod Kanehl, Claudell Washington, Keith Hernandez (so fond of his uniform number, he was also caught stealing 17 times), Butch Huskey, Timo Perez, and current free agent nobody’s talking about bringing back Harrison Bader. The only two Mets who stole at least 17 bases and yielded a better rate than 17 safe! and 2 out! were Chico Walker (21 SB, 1 CS, 95.5 SB%) and Jason Bay (26 SB, 2 CS, 92.9 SB%). What each of these gentlemen of otherwise diverse skill sets has in common is that none of them will be 2025 Mets. Here’s hoping the same won’t have to be said of Pete Alonso.
Who in the hell is Antoan Richardson?
And it appears he was the 1B coach last year as well. Who knew?
They never seem to announce the 1B and 3B coaches on the broadcadt, or the umpires, for that matter. Idk, maybe they do, in between the 11 minutes of commercials which begin each broadcast.
In the good ol’ days, it was clearly announced that Roy McMillan was coaching 1B and Eddie Yost was coaching 3B. And the umps were announced and highlighted, including such luminaries as Doug Harvey, Ed Sudol, and Dutch Rennert, not to mention Chris Pelekoudis and the infamous Augie Donatelli.
Now you don’t know anyone, except of course, for Hernandez, and that is due mainly to his incompetence and lawsuits he seems fond of filing.
Alonso, will he or won’t he? According to Jon Heyman – can you believe him? – it sounds like Pete went to Toronto and whatever they were offering was at best about the same as the Mets offer. So now he and Boras are back at the table with Cohen/Stearns.
No sorry, if Pete’s gonna leave us, he doesn’t get to keep the Polar Bear nickname.
I’ve been in Toronto in the winter. If Pete relocates there, he’ll wish he literally was a polar bear.