Plenty of New York Mets fans were upset about first baseman Pete Alonso leaving Queens to sign with the Baltimore Orioles this offseason. Few reacted as strongly as former Mets franchise home run leader Darryl Strawberry.
Alonso broke Strawberry’s record of 252 home runs in a Mets uniform in August, finishing the year with 264. But when the Orioles came calling with a five-year, $155 million check, it seemed like a fairly straightforward decision for Alonso to accept, rather than waiting for the Mets to make a competitive offer that might never have come.
That evidently wasn’t how Strawberry saw the situation. The eight-time All-Star, who left New York to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 1991 season, believes the “Polar Bear” made a massive mistake by leaving the Mets and their fans behind.
“Pete could have broken all the records,” Strawberry said Monday, per Laura Albanese of Newsday. “He could have been at the top of every offensive category for this organization … One day, he’s going to wake up just like I did and he’s going to regret (leaving New York).”
“(I was) really shocked that Pete would leave New York for Baltimore…People say, ‘Well, why? You left New York for L.A.,’ but you’ve got a different ownership. You’ve got an owner that really cares. You’ve got an owner that will work with you if you work with him.”
It would be fairly simple for Alonso to refute Strawberry’s logic if he were to reveal what the Mets were (or in this case, were not) willing to offer him. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported on Dec. 10 that New York did not make a formal offer to its former five-time All-Star first baseman, and was uncomfortable “going to the lengths and figures that he ended up with.”
In other words, Alonso didn’t leave New York for Baltimore as much as he left a place that didn’t want to pay him his market value and went to a place that was more than happy to sign on the dotted line.
Even in a sport where some would argue too many decisions are based on money, it’s hard to blame Alonso for demanding to be compensated like the star that he is.
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