All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso suggested on Sunday he isn’t yet sweating uncertainty related to the July 30 trade deadline even as the New York Mets fall further and further out of contention.
“We’re still a long ways away,” Alonso told Will Sammon of The Athletic before New York’s come-from-behind 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon. “We have at least two months. That’s a lot of time. That’s a lot of games left. It’s not like the trade deadline is 10 days away. So I feel like there’s plenty of time for us to make up ground and then also really showcase who we are as a team and what our potential can be.”
Per Tim Britton of The Athletic, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said during the SNY broadcast of Friday’s 8-7 loss to the Giants that the club was still “in information-gathering mode” regarding the trade deadline. Stearns offered that comment in the middle of what became a five-game losing streak that dropped a Mets team that was 18-18 on May 7 to 21-30 before Sunday’s victory.
As for Alonso, he continues to be the subject of trade rumors that likely won’t quiet down even if the Mets stack some wins before the official start of summer arrives. The slugger, who turns 30 years old in December, remains on track to reach free agency after the season and, by all accounts, isn’t close to inking any type of extension with the only MLB home he’s known since he made his big-league debut in 2019.
“The only thing I can control is my attitude and my play; I can’t really control those decisions,” Alonso said. “But for me, I love this place. I love putting on the uniform. This place is obviously very special to me. But the only thing I can control is my effort level on a day-to-day basis and how I can impact the game on the field.”
New York entered Monday trailing the first-place Philadelphia Phillies by a whopping 15 games in the National League East standings. The Mets are part of wild-card conversations as of Memorial Day mostly because it’s not yet the halfway point of the season.
Alonso indicated he and others in the clubhouse are the only individuals who can prevent Stearns and team owner Steve Cohen from executing a summer fire sale between the final week of May and July 30.
“The biggest way to solve it is to go out there and make it happen between the lines,” Alonso explained. “That’s really it. Yeah, we haven’t been playing well. But the only way to solve it is to win.”
New York’s next chance to win will come when the club hosts the 33-22 Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday afternoon.
