Pete Alonso may have been born about a decade too late.
When Mark Teixeira signed an eight-year, $180 million deal with the Yankees just over 15 years ago, it became the third-richest contract in baseball history, behind only Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.
Over the next five years, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Joey Votto and Albert Pujols each signed multi-year deals worth more than $200 million.
But since then, first basemen such as Teixeira have seen their salaries drop in relation to other positions, which is one of the reasons why Pete Alonso, despite having hit more homers (192) than anyone in baseball since 2019, isn’t in line for a top-five contract in the sport, whether he becomes a free agent following the upcoming season or agrees to an extension with the Mets before hitting the open market.
