The Mets’ Pete Alonso contingency plan is coming together.
On the same day team owner Steve Cohen described the “exhausting” nature of his free-agent negotiations with Alonso’s camp, third basemen Mark Vientos and Brett Baty confirmed the Mets recently asked them to begin taking reps at first base.
“I started maybe like a week or two ago,” Vientos, 25, said Saturday during the Amazin’ Day fan festival at Citi Field.
“I’ve taken millions of ground balls at third base. It’s the same thing. It’s more so the footwork around the bag, and the picks, and kind of just getting familiar with different plays that can happen.”
Alonso has been the Mets’ starting first baseman for the last six years, but the 30-year-old remains unsigned with spring training less than a month away.
Baty, 25, won the Mets’ third-base job out of spring training last year, but Vientos took it over early in the season and ultimately made 103 starts at the position during a breakout campaign.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns reached out to Baty a couple of weeks ago and asked him to start getting reps all over the infield, including at first base, Baty said.
“I turned around, got on the phone, got a first-base glove right away,” Baty said Saturday. “Got it shipped overnight and I’ve been doing first-base reps, along with second base and third base as well.”
Baty has never appeared at first base in the majors or minors, though he did spend time at the position during his sophomore year of high school.
“First base is still a little new to me,” Baty said. “But I’ve been hammering it the past couple of weeks, so it’s been fun working on picks and stuff like that.”
Moving Vientos to first base, where he’s started nine games over three MLB seasons, would open a competition at third base. In addition to Baty, the Mets have middle infielder Luisangel Acuña, 22, taking reps at third, while fellow prospect Ronny Mauricio, 23, is working his way back from knee surgery that cost him the 2024 season.
“There’s always competition,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday. “We like what we’ve got on our roster right now, and we keep saying it: Our young players are going to get opportunities.”
Vientos hit 27 home runs with an .837 OPS in 413 at-bats last season. Baty, a former first-round pick, hit four home runs with a .633 OPS in 153 MLB at-bats last year, compared to 16 homers and an .853 OPS with Triple-A Syracuse.
Acuña flashed during a late-season call-up, hitting .308 with three home runs in 39 at-bats.
Mendoza mentioned Jared Young and Joey Meneses — both of whom the Mets signed to minor-league contracts this offseason — as options at first base. Young, 29, is on the 40-man roster but boasts only 62 career MLB at-bats. Meneses, 32, is a .231 hitter in 1,114 MLB at-bats.
The 30-year-old Alonso, who is represented by agent Scott Boras, hit 34 home runs with 88 RBI last season. The Mets reportedly offered him a three-year contract in the $70 million dollar range.
During a panel at Saturday’s festival, Cohen said he did not like the contract structures that have been presented to him, saying, “I think it’s highly asymmetrical against us,” and acknowledged the Mets could move on from Alonso if nothing changes.
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