How Mets can solve Pete Alonso contract dilemma — and the alternatives if they can’t

David Stearns has steadily dropped breadcrumbs to his player procurement strategy.

In his year-plus with the Mets, Stearns has demonstrated that for players in their twenties with plenty of prime years remaining and a high ceiling, he will advocate to use Steve Cohen’s money aggressively.

Thus, last offseason, the Mets were willing to match the Dodgers’ 12-year, $325 million bid for 25-year-old Yoshinobu Yamamoto and would have gone higher had the pitcher’s reps not told them to stop because Yamamoto wanted to play with Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles.

This offseason the Mets agreed to the largest contract ever (years, signing bonus, total dollars) with Juan Soto, who turned 26 in October.