
Like their crosstown rivals the Yankees, the New York Mets had their 2024 season end at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Mets won two games in the NLCS, as opposed to just the one game won by the Yankees in the World Series. So were the Mets better?
They are certainly feeling better about their offseason after poaching free agent slugger Juan Soto from the Yankees. In the battle of New York clout, Mets owner Steve Cohen scored big with the signing of Soto. And this week, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner cried poor at the difficulty of keeping up with the big spending of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers are baseball’s benchmark. Both New York teams are chasing L.A., and that’s obvious with the moves the Mets are making. It’s also obvious when the owner of a Yankees team that is also above a $300 million payroll and made a league-best $720 million in 2023 claims poverty. (2024 final revenue numbers are not yet available.)
If you can’t join the Dodgers at the top, complain about them being at the top.
For the Mets and Steve Cohen, they prefer the former.
Pete Alonso Negotiations
The Dodgers have multiple MVP candidates in Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. The Mets now have Juan Soto, who is paying +550 behind Ohtani’s +200. But they need another big slugger to keep up.
Pete Alonso has been that big slugger in the past, hitting 34 home runs last year for the Mets and another four home runs and 10 RBI in the playoffs. He also has seasons of 53 home runs, 40, and 46.
Alonso became a free agent for the first time in his career after the 2024 season ended, and the negotiations between the Mets and Alonso’s agent have not gone smoothly. Cohen went public with the process, calling it “exhausting.” Cohen went on to say, “Soto was tough, this is worse. A lot of it is, we made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures [of the offer] that are being presented back to us. I think it is highly asymmetric against us. I feel strongly about it.
“I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations.”
The Toronto Blue Jays have been the Mets main foil, also engaged in negotiations with Alonso. But they just committed $92.5 million to Anthony Santander, and extending Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a priority in Toronto. The reality is that regardless of what the structure looks like (deferred years and opt-out clauses), the Mets have the most money to give to Alonso. New York is his best choice.
The Toughest Division in the National League
The Mets were just two wins away from the World Series last year. But let’s not forget that they didn’t get into the playoffs until the season’s final day. And even then, it was only by tiebreaker that New York got the final wild card spot over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Philadelphia Phillies won 95 games and the National League East last year, and they are third on the odds board to win the National League this year at +600. Slightly ahead of them at +500 are the Atlanta Braves, who come to 2025 with a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr. (+1600 to win the MVP). And even with only 49 games of Acuña last season, the Braves were still a playoff team.
To be brutally honest to Cohen and the Mets, they must get Alonso back in the lineup, and then they must hope that everything goes just right for them in 2025. The Mets are +600 to win the National League, +200 to win the N.L. East (third behind the Braves and Phillies), and they are -230 to make the postseason.
But if the Mets do want to beat the Yankees in the battle of New York, they have to win World Series titles. They have to be better than the Yankees and the Dodgers, and that will be no easy task.

With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.