Back in early November, our headline read: Juan Soto would love to see Pete Alonso back on the Mets roster next season. Soto didn’t hide how he felt at the time.
“He’s one of the best power hitters of this generation,” Soto said then. “I really enjoyed my time with him in a Mets uniform, and I hope we can have many more moments together.”
Fast forward to now, and that hope has never come to fruition. Alonso is gone, signing a five-year deal with the Orioles, leaving Mets fans wondering what could’ve been.
Given how outspoken Soto was just a few months ago during the captaincy discussions involving Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte, many expected him to be just as candid about the Mets losing their all-time home run leader. So, what’s Soto feeling in the aftermath, watching a teammate he publicly wanted end up elsewhere?
“Before the news came out, we already knew what was going to happen, as I said, I always keep in contact with the team. We got along well, Pete is a tremendous player, tremendous person, a person that cares about his team and wants the best for his team,” Soto said.
Well, based on what Soto has said, it seems like he knew where things were headed with Alonso and understood that a return to New York wasn’t guaranteed. Now, that naturally leads to the bigger question: was it that the Mets weren’t interested in keeping Alonso at all, or were they simply unwilling to go as far as a five-year commitment?
When Soto called Alonso a “tremendous player,” it also felt like an admission that he’ll miss having him hit behind him in the lineup. If you remember, Soto has talked about this exact dynamic before, especially when he shared the field with Aaron Judge.
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“I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me,” Soto once said. That Judge-Soto combo was about as close to a perfect one-two punch as you can get. Both were dangerous, smart power hitters who fed off each other.
Something similar was starting to take shape with the Mets, with Alonso gradually filling that Judge-like role behind Soto. Now, that dynamic is gone too. And Soto hasn’t shied away from acknowledging how much he enjoyed playing alongside Alonso. With the latest rumors hinting at tension between Soto and the Mets’ front office, this could end up being yet another layer in an already complicated situation.