New York Mets boss Steve Cohen said yesterday that it was tiring to negotiate with Pete Alonso and that he didn't like the contract structure proposed by the other side. In response, Alonso's agent, Scott Boras, said that the contract structure they proposed was no different from other players, and today it was revealed that the so-called contract structure is the buyout fee for the player's option.

Evan Roberts, host of the sports talk show on New York's WFAN Radio, said he had heard that the issue with the contract structure was in the player option part, "Boras is trying to get a player out of the contract and get more money, like $25 million a year, and if you get away with it, you can get $5 million or something like that."

Roberts doesn't think such a contract makes sense, and Cohen said yesterday that talking to Alonso is more tiring than talking to Juan Soto, "A big part of it is that we've got a lot of contracts and I don't like the structure they gave us back." I strongly feel that it is very asymmetrical for us." He also said, "I'm honest, I don't like this negotiation, I don't like the proposal they put to us."

In response, Boras said that the contract structure they proposed was "the same as the criteria for other teams to sign a qualified player or star player in a similar condition, no different, just a fair standard that has been established."

The player option with a buyout does appear in some player contracts, such as the two-year, $34 million contract signed by Rhys Hoskins and the Milwaukee Brewers in January 2024, and the $18 million player option in 2025 that can be bought out for $4 million. In other words, if Hoskins chooses to get out of his contract at the end of the 2024 season, the Brewers will still have to pay him $4 million.

The most extreme example of this in recent years is Justin Turner's two-year, $22 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in January 2023. In the deal, negotiated by Vayner Sports Agency, the 2024 contract is $13.4 million, and the player option can be bought out for $6.7 million. In the end, Turner opted out of his contract at the end of the 2023 season, and the Red Sox paid him $6.7 million. This is the cap on the percentage of the maximum buyout fee that will still be considered as a guaranteed year for the purpose of the luxury tax calculation.