After previously reporting that Sean Manaea’s deal with the Mets would include $23.25MM in deferred payments, Will Sammon of The Athletic offered more details on the structure of Manaea’s contract this morning.
Manaea will earn equal $25MM salaries in all three years of the deal, adding up to the reported total guarantee of $75MM. However, $7.75MM of his salary will be deferred without interest each season, adding up to the reported total of $23.25MM in deferrals. As Sammon previously mentioned, the deferrals will be paid out in equal portions over 10 years from 2035-44. Sammon also notes that Manaea can earn standard additional incentives for making an All-Star appearance ($50K), winning a Gold Glove ($50K), winning LCS MVP ($50K), winning World Series MVP ($100K), and finishing top-three in Cy Young voting ($50K for first place, $25K for second place, $10K for third place).
The deferred payments mean that Manaea’s contract isn’t quite worth $75MM in present-day value. Therefore, the luxury tax hit for the Mets won’t be quite as high as his $25MM AAV. Jon Becker of FanGraphs suggests the present-day value of his AAV for luxury tax purposes is just over $22MM. That’s not entirely insignificant to the Mets, who will be paying the luxury tax once again in 2025. It’s also interesting that Manaea’s contract is about $1MM less valuable than the three-year, $67MM deal his former teammate Luis Severino signed with the Athletics. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last week that Manaea turned down that same offer from the A’s before they gave it to Severino instead. Of course, it’s not hard to understand why Manaea would rather pitch for the Mets than the A’s, but it’s interesting that he technically took a discount to re-sign with New York.
In another Mets update, Sammon theorizes that “contract length” is currently what’s holding up a deal between the Mets and Pete Alonso. Heyman recently made a similar suggestion, saying “I do think the years are the hang-up right now” (per Jon Heyman’s Insider Notebook on Bleacher Report). Back in December, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported the Mets were still “pushing hard” to reunite with Alonso. From Alonso’s perspective, it’s hard to picture a better fit than the only team he’s ever known. Yet, a deal hasn’t come together. A disagreement over contract length could certainly explain why.
Presumably, Alonso and his agent Scott Boras are still looking to beat the guaranteed money from the seven-year, $158MM extension he reportedly turned down from the Mets in the summer of 2023. To do so, he’d need to sign for at least $137.5MM this winter (he already earned the first $20.5MM in 2024 during his final year of arbitration). It’s hard to imagine Alonso approaching that number on anything shorter than a six-year contract. Meanwhile, it’s not hard to understand why teams would balk at offering a six-year contract to a 30-year-old first baseman coming off two consecutive down years.
Pete overplayed his hand. It happens. Bregman will age much better than Alonso, and Vlad might be tempted to come to Queens next year to pair with Soto. Lotsa moving parts here
I could more easily see a power hitting 1b banging around the league until 40 than I could see the same for a defensive 3b
Wishful thinking. Power hitters with low contact rates fall off a cliff when their bat speed drops around age 31-32. Pete’s clearest comps are Ryan Howard and Chris Davis
Howards Achilles blew out and Davis is a stretch as ridiculous as your name.
Pete still has the more RBIs of ANY 1B. That’s his job as a 1B. That and catch the ball thrown to you.
RBIs by themselves are a horrible way to evaluate any hitter.
Hardly
Davis had 2 non-consecutive good years out of 8 prior to his big contract, averaging 1.8 WAR per year, while Alonso has averaged 3.8 without a single below average season. The bust potential was always apparent with Davis. Less so with Alonso.
Baseball ref has mcgwire as best comp. Of course mcgwire had steroids and a larger salary
Howard was in full decline before the achilles – if you want a comp a little closer to home, how ‘bout your boy Mo Vaughn?
If you were a hitter, what is THE BEST outcome of you at bat. 1-walk, 2-base hit 3-ANYTHING THAT DRIVES IN A RUN. Bro it’s number 3
RBIs and “drives in a run” require that there are players on base ahead of you. HRs with nobody on base are pointless…
a HR is pointless, are you kidding. IT”S A RUN. No team win with OBP. Have you ever played competitively. RUNS WINS GAMES.
The event immediately preceding scoring a run is getting on base.
OBP, HR, etc., all work together to create runs.
I’ve never understood why RBI are part of the Triple Crown and runs scored aren’t as valued when run scored are equally as important as runs driven in.
Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldshmidt, Matt Olson and Carlos Santana all have more RBI than Alonso. But gba is right. That is a terrible metric to measure by. It’s too situational. To much of the credit you want to give to Alonso has to go to the batters getting on base ahead of him.
How mad are you that brilliant Ivy League educated guys are running baseball teams completely ignoring and dismissing, disagreeing and down right disrespecting your dinosaur logic and building teams with high obp.
Look at Goldy & Beklly, no longer power hitters & still banging around the leader. Nolan is being shopped as he’s also no longer power hitting and an aging 3b.
Alonso & his agent muffed. Bregman must have competing offers.
Bregman might be a first baseman in 2-3 years himself.
Another Boras Blunder.
Im surprised how many dont feel for the agent of their favorite players. Its funny to me how his role as middle man upsets people. Should read thomas sowells book on middle man ethnicities and how they too suffer like boras under economic misconceptions
middle man ethnicities?
Interesting book. And yes
@bronyaur The greed and ignorance were all Pete’s.
Vlad will age worse than both of them
Those are some fine numbers he will be aging
I agree here for sure. Free agency reminds me on musical chairs. You don’t wanna be the guy without a team when the spending stops. Obviously Bregman & Alonso are fairly linked in the outcome of which one goes where when, but I agree hand was over played. As a Mets fan, I think Pete is more valuable to the Mets than he is to most others at his price tag.
For the Mets, you hope he’s Jim Thome, but you could get Chris Davis. Risk is always there.
Do you mean Boras overplayed Alonso?
No one knows what alonso will get, especially jack strawb whom thinks vientos saves the mets 15 runs at first base over alonso lol
Alonso for 4 years max
That’s some good FU Ball. 4 years max, indeed.
@FU Ball Why? The Mets already have a better 1Bman on the roster in Vientos, who has already played a half-year of competent 1B in the minors and was fine there in brief stints in the majors.
They improve their IF defense by 15 runs by moving Vientos to 1B, where Pete’s poor, and moving rapidly towards unplayable.
Fg has Baty as providing 1.8 fWAR in 2025 at 3B even if he’s no better than he was there in 2024, and that’s not even including Mauricio in the 3B mix, or whomever the Mets pick up as their backup / roving MIer, where they could go as high as Kim, or just bring back Iglesias to put a useful floor under 2B and 3B.
Pete doesn’t even make sense for the Mets on a 1/25m pillow contract.
Not much habitat left for polar bears. Will probably have to take whatever is left
Climate Change IS Real.
I guess it’s time to live inside an Igloo with the beer on ice inside your Yeti cooler apparently.
Go Ice Fishing? Catch Crabs & Lobster.
MIN, WI and Canada are good for that
No teams in ME, NH, VT, but RI is close BOS
Can’t Pete sign an exclusive marketing deal to be officially called the Coca-Cola Polar Bear?
Problem Solved
forgot CLE, SEA
Anyone giving Alonso more than 4 years is crazy – but that’s seemingly a job requirement as an MLB GM… Put me down for the Angels with a 5-year pitch.
15 years for a poor fielder is crazier
$805 million is craziest.
Pay him 4 yrs $124, PLUS the money he would have if he won the Home Run Derby all four years to NOT participate in the Home Run Derby for the next four years.
Rest, Polar Bear, and rejuvenate for the second half of the season, instead of screwing up your swing and timing for that BS contest.
@ imissjoe I think that salary is high. They just offered him 3/$90, which is an inflated AAV to balance out the shorter term.
If they add a year, the AAV should stay the same, or even go down a bit, not up. Totally agree with the Home Run Derby addendum, but doubt MLB would allow it.
There’s no real evidence that the Mets made Alonso an absurd 3/90m offer, which was even reputed to involve player opt-outs to a player in steep decline. It surpasseth the absurd.
The Mets already have a better 1Bman on the roster. Why would they throw away a 30m AAV on Alonso, but not outbid the Giants for Adames, who just put up a 4.8 fWAR season in 2024 compared to Alonso’s 2.1 fWAR?
Why would they offer Alonso 50-60% of Bregman’s eventual deal when Bregman put up a 4.1 fWAR 2024, where 3/90m to Pete is actually far worse than 90m given how its structure all but guarantees the Mets eat Alonso’s entire decline phase.
Nothing related to that rumor makes any sense
@dano62 – only way Alonzo signs with the Angels is if Arte can’t stop himself from meddling. Totally the kind of absurd signing that he would do. The way Minassian has been working things lately, I dont believe he would sign Alonso if given the full control I think he’s been given.
These deferrals may make sense for mlb players but 9/10 of us peasants would take the one time cash payment lotto payout over the 20 year installments all day every day.
Every single job I’ve had has had deferrals. That’s how you save for retirement. The money doesn’t magically appear. And somehow magically I have more money than I have earned over that career. Huh.
Too bad you’re not a socialist. You would have retired with a piece of the company.
Thanks for the memories Pete.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the offseason plays out. If there is another Boras debacle like last year I will be intrigued to see if Boras’s pedigree and reputation finally takes a hit. You could feel a little of the animosity from some players towards Boras last year, but back to back years of similar results for Boras Corp and co. could put a large damper on those silly little puns of his.
DugoutJester: Boras could never get another client and still be laughing all the way to the bank.
You can’t polish a …. Nothing any agent can do for some of these players. 1. He should have taken that extension if it was available. 2. The 200m or whatever he was asking for is fantasy ridiculous. 3. There was 3 better free agent 1b options available and another half dozen via trade.
@BlueB My point was referring to his reputation, not his bank account. We all know how filthy rich the man is, but he also suffers from egotistical delusion and I am curious to see how he reacts if in fact we see another debacle.
DugoutJester: He’s not worried about you or me, so no need to worry about him.
The thing is, this year does not compare to last. Last year was 4 prominent free agents all failing to get what Boras demanded/advised. hat was a debacle. This year? He got Soto a record deal that most believe exceed the player’s real value. And the off season is not over. No one anywhere said that the Mets and Alonso are done negotiating. Even if Alonso gets beaten badly, he is one player. It wouldn’t be the first time a Boras client did, and it wouldn’t be a ‘debacle’.
Bregman might not get paid what he initially demanded. But he’s not going to be left holding the bag on a substantially inferior deal the way it [seems to look like] Alonso might.
And last but not least, Alonso could take a short-term contract as a bridge, or one with opt-outs this year, and still wind up getting paid very big money over the next 6 years.
@BlueB so whats the purpose of a baseball forum…? …? …?
None of those involved in the articles posted worry about you, me, your mother, NO ONE YOU KNOW. But yet here we are, discussing. So not sure of your point, at all.
Perhaps not, but its still back to back years where Boras “promised” his clients contracts in a certain realm.
Soto does not carry any weight; we all knew Soto was going to get Ohtani money, everyone and their mother knew it would break 700m. That was Boras’s layup.
It carries plenty of weight for Boras’ agency, Soto and his family, and Mets nation.
DugoutJester: My point is that Boras and his reputation are fine, and he’s not losing any sleep over comments on forums like this one.
Yes because my original post was about him losing sleep… ¿dafaq?
DugoutJester: No, just about hoping to see his reputation take a hit.
I’m sure he’s not losing any sleep over such a thing.
At this point, you’re just arguing about semantics.
@BlueB Ill put the subtitles on for ya next time around
DugoutJester: All subtitles would do is amplify your ignorance and bitterness toward someone you don’t even know. There’s no point.
Fine, Ill give you the subtitles with the bouncing ball…
Last year felt like owner collusion against Boras. Teams collectively got stingy overnight and you can’t blame Boras for using the same tactics that have seen success for 40 years
Except Soto and Burnes this year.
That wasn’t collusion… All of those free agents had question marks that everyone could see. Same this year… I’m a Mets fan who loves Alonso and wants him back, but he had a bad platform year. Usually when you have a bad year ahead of free agency, it impacts your ability to make top dollar. This is nothing new. Up until the playoffs, he basically let us down in big spots the entire year and most people I knew didn’t feel any need to overpay for him this winter. Unfortunately, he’s gonna have to prove it again this year or he won’t get the contract he desires. That is, unless the Angels wanna Angel.
Nothing like last year’s disaster. It’s just Alonso & Bregman at this point. Also, he got Soto almost $800 mil….
$805 million. Think again.
$765 million that can escalate to $805 million. Speaking of thinking again.
Alonso gone done messed up not signing the extension….
He did the Mets a significant favor. Let’s see if they take advantage, or if Cohen’s meddling continues to cause as many problems as the Wilpons’ did when Cespdes opted out of a 3/75m deal and the Wilpons insisted Alderson bring him back for that ridiculous 4/110m deal.
Alonso really fumbled the bag. However, if it would bring down the AAV, I wouldn’t be opposed to a longer deal. People here have been saying 3/$90M. If Pete wants six years, is 6/$130M really that much worse than 3/$90M? $30M AAV vs $21.67M. And the way salaries have been skyrocketing, in five years, $21.67M might not seem like much. Look at NBA salaries over the last decade. Role players get $20M now.
I just don’t want them to have to commit a roster spot to him past 3 years. Look at how the Phillies had to handle Ryan Howard or the Orioles had to handle Chris Davis. They were stuck with players with negative WARs. One tool power hitters age poorly
@thecheddahbob: the contract only guarantees a salary, not a roster spot. If he’s as bad as Howard or Davis in a few years, you just release him and you get the roster spot. You still pay him, but it’s a lower AAV.
Also I don’t really think there’s a comparison between Pete and Howard/Davis. Howard was the worst defensive player in baseball and also suffered a brutal torn Achilles. Davis already had four terrible seasons under his belt and had an issue with medication when he signed with Baltimore. Pete’s just declining normally. I think he’d be solid/good for another three years.
I feel like theyll meet somewhere around 4/110
Davis is a good example.
He led the league in homeruns and rbis and even garnered a few mvp votes on his platform year. While he did have a down year the year prior, the year before that he was 3rd in mvp voting while earning a silver slugger award. so 2 out of his 3 years prior to signing were mvp caliber and had an uptick his final year. with some mvp so there was some light. Also they both are signing at roughly the same age. Also add in Davis played corner outfield along with 1b.
Alonso has been trending down in the final 3 years pretty consistently. While i agree i think 2-3 years of positive production sounds about right. but paying 130 for 2-3 years of production seems steep. you are essentially paying soto prices for nimmo production and that not including the taxes to be paid on it. 100M sounds about right whether they do that for 3 or 4 years with club options/buyouts as that is paying for some upside. I dont think Alonso will do that amount for any more years than that.
I agree. And I think that if Pete would take 6/$130M, the Mets would sign him in a heartbeat. Another way to look at that is they’re paying him only an extra $40M for the last three years, which is incredibly cheap right now.
Despite what the writers are saying, Pete (or Boras) wants a contract with both, longevity and a higher AAV (maybe not $30M, necessarily, but clearly more than $22 or $23. The Mets offered him 7/$158 and he turned it down, presumably because the $22.57M AAV was too low. So now they’re offering him the high AAV and short term. Its part of the negotiating process. In poker, they call it a probe bet. The other side’s response gives the Mets more info about what the Alonso camp wants.
Yup, they wanted 30M+ AAV to start and probably only down to about 6/160M right now.
When they get down to 5/120M it might interest a few teams, but the Mets probably meet that price.
Yes it’s much worse. Will be a awful grade F contract. No one cares about Pete. Got a nickname but not a star. Doesn’t sell tickets. That’s why Mets signed Soto.
He’s not athletic so that’s not a good bet to age well. Shorter the term the better.
I would rather signed the 3 better free agent options or half dozen or so trade options. Most of those make around 12m.
Give Pete 3 61m. 1 million more than Walker. Should have just signed Walker though. 4 76m 5 94m 6 108m if he must have long term and you must have him. Not a prediction. These teams are pretty dumb. They will likely pay him more or pillow contract.
Walker got three years as a 33-year old, Alonso is 30.
Walker was a late bloomer who only started hitting when he was 28. Alonso started hitting his rookie season at the age of 24.
Walker has spent his career in the hitter friendly AZ desert air,. Alonso in a park that, depending on where you look, is at best neutral for hitters.
I’d rather sign Goldschmidt who is 37 38 or whatever instead of Pete. Heck give me Santana. And as far as desert air advantage bs all I can say his home away numbers are easily available to look up.
I’m a huge Mets fan and Pete’s my guy, but if the Angels or Giants or some mystery team steps up and offers him 6 years at $25M per, I’ll wish him well and thank him for the memories.
Camikey — As a Giants fan, I don’t want Alonso at any price. We have a young stud first baseman who will be up mid-season. If anything, the Giants need a platoon partner for LaMonte Wade Jr. to start the season. Rhys Hoskins?
To be honest, I want him back, but even for Cohen, the price has gotta be right (or at least, close). Rumors are that they offered Pete 3 years for $30M apiece, which seems MORE than fair. I guess some team that was really desperate might offer him 4 years and $110M total or something, but at this point that would be very, very surprising. I would advise him to take the Mets’ offer, knock 125 homers over the next three seasons, win a World Series or two, and then go back out on the market.
Sounds awful. Rather have Walker at 3 60m. Mets very generous. That extension allegedly offered unreal generous.
@ Pete’sView you’re overdoing it with the prospect love. Absolutely no idea how long Clifford will take to get here. Even if he makes his MLB debut this year, there’s as much chance that he flops his first time up as succeeds. Because that s what MOST prospects do. Fans just seem to forget that once the player succeeds. Vientos, Baty, Mauricio, Nimmo, Flores all had struggles when they first came up. That is not a criticism of them. . That is just an observation that is meant to point out that acclimating to the majors is a process for most players that takes more than one trip back and forth to the minors.
Pete has seller’s remorse. He will end up leaving tens of millions on the table by not agreeing to the Mets generous extension. Another example of how emotion (in this case, prideful greed) drives decision-making more than dispassionate, cold calculation. He bet on himself and he lost. As a longtime Mets fan I would not mind seeing Pete in another uniform in 25 and beyond. Under no circumstances would I want to see the Mets extend an offer of more than 3 years to this unidimensional player who has already shown significant signs of decline. At best he’s a 2 WAR player going forward before he falls off the inevitable cliff.
Oh look more deferred payments. I guess baseball is ruined forever because of a payment scheduling arrangement agreed upon between the player and the team that anyone is free to offer or deny. Even the “poor” teams. And by poor teams I mean the teams whose owners don’t really care about winning and just field a team for the revenue sharing.
Jon Heyman is a hack.
Put away the ego; forget the past offers and take your best deal right now. Before long, all that will be available is a pillow contract.
“ still looking to beat the guaranteed money from the seven-year, $158MM extension he reportedly turned down from the Mets in the summer of 2023 “
Pete should sign with dodgers or angels
Bc he’s living in lala land
Every year, there’s one or two players who are left looking for a chair in the musical chair’s game. It’s possible that Alonso could be that guy
Can’t wait to see Pete Alonso sign with the Dodgers.
Never happen. Alonso isn’t worth what he thinks and any smart team isn’t paying him for years. Maybe dodgers will defer his playing time after the 3rd year and send him off into sunset?
But they need a few more players for the bench.
Not meant as a joke I wonder IF Alonso has considered playing in
(South NOT North) Korea or Japan
I wonder if any Boras client ever has done that
Rosenthal suggesting NYM are very much in the mix for Sasaki. wouldn’t get hopes up because 5-6 other winning clubs in play, most with more pool $. But man would that be something
‘in the mix’ means just that – they have a chance. And that’s all it means. Not reading anything into it.
Sosaki going to Dodgers or Padres. West coast is where they want to be. Close to home all year long.
I hope whoever signs him, possibly gets his eye’s checked well so may be he could see the outside slider better that he has a lot of trouble with.
@Tomas7 That seems like a depth perception issue. I don’t know that SuperLasik can fix that, but you’d figure there’d be a huge market for that among pro ball guys.
Mets are better off paying Alonso now for 4-5 years, maybe even 6, than paying Vlad what he wants to get paid next year. Investing that much in a first baseman isn’t a good move imo. Sign Alonso and lock up your franchise player.
Metslvt17 – Alonso’s best year was his first. He has trended down, more or less steadily, for years. The emotions generated in his rookie year have led too many of us fans to over-value Pete. He’s not who he was as a rookie. He is a unidimensional 2ish WAR player with a profile that has repeatedly been shown not to age well (Ryan Howard, Mo Vaughn, Chris Davis, Gorman Thomas, Dave kingman). The visuospatials decline along with bat speed. A 4 year contract makes little sense given that he has not even had 4 solid years (3.5 WAR or better). He is a slightly above average power hitter per OPS+. If we take the emotions out the equation he should not command more than 50 million over 3. How much do we value the emotion – a so called homegrown power hitter who is going to challenge or break some Mets offensive records? Couldn’t imagine spending much more than 20million for that – so perhaps 3 for 70 with some incentives ought to be fair enough
Pete? A “franchise player”?
You must be 12.
My how Steve cohen’s Mets project has failed. Can’t be dodgers east with a small market GM who shops from dollar menu and discounts pitching. Pretty sad state of affairs if they fail to make playoffs
Clown comment
My wife got a Carter jersey for me for Christmas (I’ve wanted one since ‘86) and I can’t wait to wear it to CitiField! #8 #LFGM
Mets would be smart to say, ‘Look, that 3/90 is no longer on the table. Now it’s 3/80 with 10 in hard-to-earn incentives (MVP, Gold Glove, etc) and on Jan. 15, it drops to 3/75.:” Meanwhile, they explore Bregman, Arenado (who would still be a better deal than Alonso if Stl paid down the money) and finally, Baty/Mauricio if need be. I honestly can’t see any team giving Pete top dollar for four years; his market has evaporated and he’s just not that good an investment.
Giving Alonso anything longer than three years is a huge mistake, and they might even regret that long.
Devlsh Well said. Yes, it’s entirely possible Pete never again warrants a lineup slot after his minimally acceptable 2024 season (2.1 fWAR), declining defense, and steep overall decline since 2022.
It would be typical for a R-R 30 yo 1Bman whose lone talent, slugging, that had already dropped to .459 in 2024 was out of the game in three years.
When I hear the name Pete Alonso, alternating images come to mind… the first is him diving inelegantly at a ground ball 12 feet out of his reach and the second is him swinging at a slider that ends up in the left-handed batters box.
Disclaimer: I’m a Mets fan.
Mets should wait until spring training to see if they can get Vlad Jr on a one year deal.
No one is talking about it. But the Mets are looking REAL stupid right now for not manipulating Pete Alonso’s service time when he first came up.
They weren’t, and we’re not.
First, that was under a different ownership and different GM, neither of which have anything to do with the team today. Second, it was widely albeit mildly admired for not indulging in the usual sleaze. Third, Pete’s no longer a valuable player, so who cares, really, where he plays in 2025—except Pete and his family.
That you admire scumbags should tell you something.
@JackStrawb How is it admirable to essentially swat a free year of control to the ground? And he’s absolutely still a valuable player. Tons of teams (including the Mets) would jump at the chance to sign Pete Alonso to a one-year contract. The problem is he wants a long-term deal and today’s MLB teams are shying away from giving those to defensively limited sluggers who have already celebrated their 30th birthdays.
Unless you think the Mets would have non-tendered Pete this offseason if he had an extra year of control not manipulating his service time absolutely set them back at least a little.
Moral of the story: When someone offers you a $150 million contract, sign it.
Was always told the first offer is usually gonna be the best offer. Best I see would be 4/100 with team buyout after 3.
Pete should’ve signed that contract that the Mets first offer him now he’s kinda stuck out there along with bregman because they want to be more than the projections. Which we have seen over the last couple of free agent signings. He’s not going to bat .300 and get on 40 percent of the time. He’s not a Keith Hernandez or don mant at first. He’s the low avg all or nothing hitter, with below avg defense at 1st. He’s worth 5/6 years at best just to paid off his last bit of prime.