The New York Mets’ storybook run came to a deflating conclusion with their Game 6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. There is no shame in losing to baseball’s most expensive team, but the Mets were painfully close to eternal glory. It’s hard not to be disappointed by how it all ended.
This New York squad will be remembered with extreme fondness, though. One could not possibly overstate how enjoyable it was to watch the Mets turn their season around bit by bit, gimmick by gimmick. Credit Grimace, credit the front office, or credit a resilient bunch of players, but the Mets felt like the team of destiny once October rolled around.
That said, a loss in the championship series propels the Mets into an offseason of uncertainty. Pretty much the entire starting rotation other than Kodai Senga is eligible for free agency. Meanwhile, All-Star first baseman and postseason hero Pete Alonso is up for grabs. He’s also a Scott Boras client, which means little is guaranteed in the Mets’ favor.
Alonso is bound to have a lengthy list of interested suitors this winter. One potential landing spot? The New York Yankees, who need to start thinking about long-term Anthony Rizzo replacements. Alonso would give the Yanks another megawatt power source behind Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. It’s a tantalizing thought.
Yankees, Pete Alonso team-up could torture Mets fans and keep New York atop the AL
This is the absolute nightmare scenario for Mets fans. Over at Bleacher Report, Kerry Miller outlined how it could go down.
“We’ve been assuming for most of the season that [Gerrit] Cole will opt out of the final four years on his contract to force the Yankees to add another $36M season to the end of the deal. But if he triggers the opt out, it basically becomes a question of whether they want five years of 34-year-old Cole for $180M or six years of 30-year-old Alonso for the same price.”
That is a fascinating hypothetical. My gut is five years of Gerrit Cole over six years of Pete Alonso, but as injuries enter the equation for Cole, the Yankees could look to get younger on the mound and reallocate resources toward offense.
For much of this season, pretty much all of New York’s offense came from the Soto-Judge duo. Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton have come alive in October, and the Jazz Chisholm trade helped, but the Yankees could be inclined to add another major bat. The gauntlet of Soto-Judge-Alonso-Stanton is a lot of fun to hypothesize about, unless you’re the pitcher faced with navigating that four-man wrecking crew.
The Yankees need a new first baseman with Anthony Rizzo’s $17-million club option bound to be declined. Ben Rice had his moments in the regular season and Jon Berti has filled in admirably in a pinch, but we’re talking about Pete Alonso. His clutch postseason moonshots are all the more incentive for the Yankees to make a run. It was not the smoothest regular season for Alonso, but he raked 34 home runs and came up large time and time again in October. That should be enough to convince the Yankees. Stealing him from the Mets just makes it more appealing.
Alonso has made his love for the Mets organization clear, but if the Yankees come with an aggressive offer, it’s impossible to deny the appeal of joining such a star-studded group and donning pinstripes. There’s a reason the Mets are looked at as little brothers in the city. It is what it is. I am not some Yankees propagandist, but there is something different — something special — about playing for that organization.
When it comes time to make a decision, would Alonso pass up joining the No. 1 seed, a potential World Series champ, and a chance to hit behind Juan Soto and Aaron Judge? Only time will tell. Let’s see how seriously the Yankees pursue the Mets first baseman.
