ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The New York Mets do not have plans to meet with Pete Alonso this week at the winter meetings.
The five-time All-Star first baseman, who turned 31 on Sunday, lives about two hours away from the hotel for the meetings in Florida. He is a free agent for the second straight offseason.
“I think Pete knows us really well. I think we know Pete really well,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday, adding that Alonso will “take the time here to perhaps meet with organizations he doesn’t know quite as well.”
Alonso was drafted by New York and spent his first seven seasons with the Mets. After a slow free agent market last winter, he signed a $54 million, two-year contract.
He opted out of the final year of the deal after hitting a career-high .272 with 38 homers, 126 RBIs and an .871 OPS in 162 games.
“As a manager, his ability to post every day ... you don’t have to worry about who’s playing first base or who’s hitting in the middle of your lineup,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I think he knows how much we want him, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Mendoza said he's had intermittent contact with Alonso this offseason. Mendoza remains hopeful they can keep Alonso in Queens.
Stearns stuck to his no-public-negotiations script when pressed on where things stand, but he detailed where he thinks the slugger belongs with the market.
“Pete has demonstrated that he’s one of the best offensive players in baseball, and he’s performed at a high level for us,” Stearns said. “That would be a priority for any team. It certainly is for us.”
Beyond Alonso, Stearns said the team is prioritizing run prevention.
The bullpen upgrades are not finished — even after the Mets' deal with Devin Williams — and Stearns said they are looking at both free agency and the trade market for help. They also want to add a starting pitcher, though Stearns expressed confidence that the organization's young arms could play a significant role. Kodai Senga’s strong offseason progress was a major positive for Stearns.
The Mets also are looking for a replacement for outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who was traded to the Texas Rangers for Marcus Semien. Their fallback position would be Jeff McNeil in left field to start the season.
The disappointing 2025 season for the Mets had Mendoza defending himself and the organization on Monday.
On his podcast last month, former Mets reliever Adam Ottavino blasted the organization’s handling of its pitching staff, accusing Mendoza of mismanaging the bullpen, failing to communicate effectively with injured players and not doing enough to protect arms. The Mets used a record 46 pitchers this season due to injuries and performance issues.
Mendoza declined to engage in a back-and-forth with Ottavino, but he defended the organization. Despite the injuries, Mendoza said he thinks the club “was probably one of the teams that protected the bullpen guys better than anybody,” even with limited length from the rotation.
Mendoza also pushed back on reports of clubhouse friction involving shortstop Francisco Lindor, outfielder Juan Soto and McNeil. He said the players “enjoyed being around each other.”
“I’m not going to get into what happens in the clubhouse. Obviously it stays there,” Mendoza said. “Now, for the past few weeks, it feels like we were fighting pretty much every day. Nobody talked about our clubhouse when we got to the second week of June with the best record in baseball. We have the best clubhouse. And then we started losing, and now everybody’s talking about, oh, some of the issues.”
Stearns admitted that clubhouse could look different in 2026. While he would not rule out another big move this offseason, the Mets are looking for more balance this winter.
“I think we’re probably going to make some moves that don’t grab a ton of headlines, that we think are really impactful moves our organization,” Stearns said. “I’d imagine over the course of the offseason, there are also going to be moves that allow you guys to write a lot. And so I think it’s probably a combination of the both, and that’s what we should be doing.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso returns to the dugout after striking out during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Sept. 23, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Angry farmers protesting delays in the payment of subsidies swarmed onto the aircraft parking area of the international airport on the southern Greek island of Crete on Monday, managing to evade riot police who used tear gas and stun grenades to keep them back.
Images from local media showed dozens of farmers standing on a section of the tarmac at the Nikos Kazantzakis international airport in Heraklion, the main town in Crete, forcing the airport to suspend all flights.
Clashes also broke out near the airport of Crete’s second-largest city, Chania, with riot police using tear gas to disperse protesting farmers who pelted them with rocks and overturned a police patrol car, local media reported. Two people were reportedly injured in Chania.
The clashes in Crete are the latest escalation in farmer protests over delays in the payment of European Union-backed agricultural subsidies in the wake of a scandal which revealed fraudulent subsidy claims.
Farmers have deployed thousands of tractors and other agricultural vehicles at border crossings and key points along highways across the country, periodically stopping traffic and threatening to completely blockade roads, as well as ports and airports.
On Friday, riot police fired tear gas at protesting farmers attempting to block the main access road to the international airport outside the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.
Police have been enforcing traffic diversions in several parts of northern and central Greece to skirt the blockades, while farmer roadblocks at the country’s northern borders with Bulgaria, Turkey and North Macedonia have already hampered truck traffic, causing long backup lines of freight vehicles.
The payment delays have come as authorities review all requests following revelations of widespread fraudulent claims for EU farm subsidies. Protesters have argued that the delays amount to collective punishment, leaving honest farmers in debt and unable to plant their fields for next season. Greece’s farming sector has also been hit this year by an outbreak of goat and sheep pox that led to a mass cull of livestock.
Michalis Chrisochoidis, the minister for public order, said last week that the government remained open to talks with protest leaders, but warned that it wouldn’t tolerate the shutdown of major transit points.
Protests by farmers are common in Greece, and similar blockades in the past have sometimes severed all road traffic between the north and south of the country for weeks.
The subsidy scandal prompted the resignation of five senior government officials in June, and the phased shutdown of a state agency that handled agricultural subsidies. Dozens of people have been arrested for allegedly filing false claims, in response to an investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The independent EU body dealing with financial crime said at the end of October that the investigation was linked to “a systematic large-scale subsidy fraud scheme and money-laundering activities.”
Farmers overturn a police vehicle during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
Farmers overturn a police vehicle during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
Police use tear gas against farmers during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
Farmers throw stones at police during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
A injured police officer stands next to a police bus during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
Farmers gather next to an overturned police vehicle during clashes with officers blocking their march to Chania's airport on Crete, Greece, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, amid protests over delayed EU farm subsidies. (AP Photo/Giannis Angelakis)
