Pete Alonso. Pete Alonso. Pete Alonso. He’s the Marcia Brady of the New York Mets zeitgeist. You can’t talk about the team without thinking of him.

It’s not exceptionally surprising he remains unsigned. The market for him was never robust. He and Scott Boras misread how many teams would have the desire to sign a first baseman on the wrong side of 30 coming off of a poor season. It was always the Mets or no one else.

Meanwhile, these other Mets free agents getting far less publicity remain unsigned. It’s a bit more puzzling as their price tags are nothing close to Alonso’s and each seems to have something pretty good to offer.

1) Jose Iglesias

Only recently has Jose Iglesias become a big talking point among Mets fans. The addition of Nick Madrigal to the roster lessens the odds of him coming back to Queens. It’s unfortunate yet understandable.

What’s more perplexing is how we’re already into February and no one else has swooped in to sign Iglesias. What could it be? It can’t possibly be his agent, Scott Boras, spoiling what should have been a lucrative trip into free agency, could it?

Unknown contract demands from the life of the 2024 Mets party make it difficult to determine exactly why nobody has come to terms on a deal with Iglesias. It’s curious. A veteran with a good head on his shoulders who hit .337 last year with his defensive skills should have a place on someone’s major league roster. At the very least, a platoon situation should have been an affordable pivot for some ball club. Is Iglesias holding out for a starting job or are teams just failing to bite on the dollar amount?

2) Jose Quintana

If you weren’t there to watch it, you’d have no idea how topsy-turvy of a season Jose Quintana had in 2024. He was ace-like at times, especially late in the season. Then there were those moments where we tried to convince ourselves he could be a pretty good reliever all the while knowing that we had no argument good enough. Quintana remains unsigned and with a lack of rumors about where he could end up, it’s anyone’s guess as to why this is the case.

Starting pitchers have gotten paid big bucks this year and many of the best now have teams. A stalled trade market at the moment as ball clubs wait and find out about Dylan Cease could be one of the reasons why Quintana has yet to ink a deal. He’s right there alongside a player such as Andrew Heaney as a quality number four starter on a good team with some red flags.

Quintana’s age is definitely a turnoff. He’ll be 36 for all of the coming year but after a season of making 31 starts plus three more in the postseason, age feels like nothing more than a number.

A one-year deal is probably all he could hope to receive. After cashing in on the biggest AAV of his career with a two-year contract with the Mets worth $26 million, the next question is what he wants most. Quintana has never won a World Series so that’s likely a goal of his before retirement. It doesn’t necessarily eliminate some of the lesser contenders from making him a deal he can’t refuse. The trade deadline is a perfect time to land on a roster with true championship aspirations.

Because of his talent and position, it’s impossible to predict exactly where Quintana could end up. Plenty of teams could use a rotation upgrade. Who’s willing to actually spend?

3) Harrison Bader

Things ended quite poorly for Harrison Bader last year but here’s the catch: there aren’t very many good center fielders available in free agency. This isn’t an era of elite talent at the position. When you get a center fielder who is among the best in the game, you tend to keep them or at least shift them to a corner outfield spot where they don’t have to worry about covering as much ground.

For as poorly as he hit in the final weeks of the season, Bader was one of the more consistent offensive players for the team early on. His numbers with the Mets at the plate last year were close to what he has done for his entire career. You know what you’re going to get. He’ll occasionally pop a home run, steal some bases, and provide you with the steadiest defense there is. Seemingly unlikely to get a $10.5 million deal like he did from the Mets last year—a ridiculous overpay from the onset of the contract—we can only assume the reason he has not inked a deal somewhere is less about the desire to add a really good fourth outfielder and more about the asking price.

Bader would ideally provide a team with a similar role as Iglesias might, sharing duties defensively while getting starts regularly against left-handed pitchers. Bader didn’t actually slot in perfectly as a masher of lefties last year, but the logic behind it remains true. Paired well with a left-handed hitter in center field, Bader might be able to produce better overall totals if he isn’t expected to play the bulk of the games.

Injuries have been a problem for Bader in the past which might be an additional reason he has yet to sign. The Mets used him well last year, easing him into a more regular role and taking it away when he struggled. It kept him healthy. Unfortunately for him, it hasn’t resulted in a new deal just yet.