Back in 2019 spring training, the New York Mets handed an Opening Day roster spot to one of their best young prospects: a budding slugger, Pete Alonso.
In a world in which most MLB teams manipulate the service time of their best prospects, the Mets didn’t want to wait a few weeks to guarantee they would have earned an extra year of team control on Alonso and he broke camp with the team.
He was slated to enter free agency after 2024 with the Mets’ decision.
And their bet paid off: he was the Rookie of the Year in the National League that year, and broke the record for home runs for a rookie over a single season with 53 (he surpassed Aaron Judge‘s 52, achieved just two years earlier).
Alonso was on his way of becoming a superstar, and even though he wasn’t quite that good in 2020 and 2021, he has been a solid performer.
Alonso May Have His Free Agency Pushed Back
However, the situation for him, as far as future earnings concern, may change and it will depend on the lockout, according to Andy Martino of SNY.
If MLB's lockout extends beyond 15 days into the regular season, Alonso would become a free agent in 2025 instead of 2024.
The MLBPA plans to fight for Pete Alonso's service time: https://t.co/ELUFBzNJEY pic.twitter.com/MeMP6ooqrp
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 3, 2022
If the current lockout extends 15 days into the regular season, Alonso will once again be a free agent after 2025 because he would have lost significant service time.
The other two players in a similar situation, according to Martino, are St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Jack Flaherty and Los Angeles Angels’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani.
An extension for Alonso would call this debate moot, but for now, it’s an important thing to consider for the Mets’ young thumper.
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