The outlook for the Mets has completely changed in recent months. They spent heavily this winter, running up the highest payroll in major league history, and came into the season as World Series contenders. Unfortunately, they struggled to get into a groove in the early parts of the season and decided to sell at the deadline. Not only did they flip rental pieces like Tommy Pham and David Robertson, but also guys who could have helped the 2024 club like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Mark Canha.
After being traded to the Rangers, Scherzer spoke publicly about how he was given the sense that next year “is now looking to be more of a kind of transitory year,” with the aggression dialed back a bit. Owner Steve Cohen addressed that situation the next day, essentially confirming Scherzer’s framing by saying that the 2024 club “won’t be as star-studded” as this year’s team. He did say that he hopes the team will still be “very competitive” and that this “doesn’t mean we’re not going to bring in free agents,” but it seems the plan is to step back.
Now that the deadline has passed, the club can’t make any more trades for the next few months, but it’s possible they could resume their selling in the offseason. Starling Marte will still have two years remaining on his contract after this one, with salaries of $19.5MM in each season. José Quintana will have one year and $13MM left on his contract. Omar Narváez is a lock to trigger his $7MM player option and Adam Ottavino seems like he’ll exercise his at $6.75MM as well. The club has a $6.5MM option for the services of Brooks Raley in 2024. Trevor Gott has one year of control and will be due an arbitration raise on this year’s $1.2MM salary.
If the Mets are looking to continue down the path they picked at the deadline, trading veterans for prospects and eating money to get a better return, any of those players could be a candidate for such an approach. Some of those cases will present the club with difficult decisions, but the most challenging will be their choice of how to handle Pete Alonso. He is making $14.5MM this year and is eligible for one more arbitration raise in 2024, before he’s slated for free agency.
Alonso, 28, is obviously an incredibly talented hitter. From his 2019 debut to the present, he’s hit 180 home runs, including 34 this year. His career batting line of .255/.343/.533 is 37% better than league average, according to wRC+. His home run tally in that stretch is the highest in the majors and that wRC+ places him just outside the top 10 among qualified hitters.
With the Mets looking to ease off the gas pedal in 2024 and Alonso slated for the open market after that campaign, the club will have to pick a lane. They could pursue trades in the offseason, though doing so would come with the negative public relations hit of moving on from a homegrown star player, as Alonso was drafted by the Mets in 2016. They could also try to sign Alonso to a long-term extension, though he would have to agree to any such pact.
The Mets could also kick the decision down the road and see how things go in 2024. It doesn’t seem like they will be giving up all hopes of contention. As Cohen said, it seems they will likely still bring in some free agents and see how things go next year. The club could hang onto Alonso until next year’s deadline, see if the baseball gods are any kinder to them and pick a lane at that point. Even if they held onto to him all the way through 2024 and took a shot at contending, they could recoup a draft pick by extending him a qualifying offer at that point. That path would come with some risk, as Alonso could always suffer an injury or a downturn in performance, causing his trade value to drop.
The path of pursuing a trade this offseason would certainly lead to the club finding many suitors. They will only be marketing one year of his services but the free agent crop of position players in incredibly weak this winter, with the class far heavier on the pitching side. Alonso will be making a hefty salary which could eliminate some suitors, but the Mets haven’t been shy about swallowing money in order to facilitate deals, sending more than $35MM to the Rangers in the Scherzer deal.
The Mets certainly have the resources to get an extension done, though it’s unclear how much appetite they would have to get one done with Alonso. Cohen recently called him “an integral part of the Mets” and hoped they can “work things out” on a long-term deal, but their plan to dial back their spending might clash with that. They already have significant long-term deals on the books for Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Díaz, Kodai Senga and Jeff McNeil, which means they already have over $100MM on the books as far out as 2026.
If the Mets are focused on building up their pipeline of young talent and assessing the future before charting their next big moves, will they want to add a massive deal for Alonso to the pile when that will surely require a nine-figure outlay of some kind? There’s also the question of how his defense will age, since he’s not a star in that department as it is. Defensive Runs Saved has given him a passable +3 grade for his career, but Ultimate Zone Rating pegs him at -2.9 with Outs Above Average at -16. A long-term deal would come with the risk of him sliding into DH-only status over time.
Perhaps another factor will be the development of the prospects they have recently added to the system. Ryan Clifford, acquired from the Astros in the Verlander deal, can play the outfield corners but has spent more time at first base this year. He has yet to reach Double-A but the Mets surely acquired him in the hopes that he would be a part of a future championship core at some point down the line. Perhaps they would prefer to track his development before deciding on how to proceed with Alonso.
Until the Mets either trade Alonso or get an extension done, his in-between status is likely to be one of the biggest storylines this offseason. What do you think is the path they should take? Put him on the trading block and continue loading the farm system for future success? Lock him up so that he can be a part of the next competitive window? Or wait until the 2024 deadline, when they will have more information about their own competitive chances and the development of their prospects?
Have you say in the poll below. (Link to poll for app users)
Trade him in the off season for top flight prospects.
Noooooo! He’s most likely to sign an extension in the off-season.
You don’t give away a player who hits 40+ homers a season. If Cohen doesn’t give him a contract extension, Alonso could be wearing a Yankees uniform in 2025.
And get injured every season as a Yankee!
Oh no, how awful, players with his body type & hitting style frequently age well too
“Yankees uniform in 2025”..I personally don’t think the Yankees would be interested in yet another expensive RH power bat. They have Dominguez in the minors and are up against the cap with similar contracts.
@yetipro Most don’t, though. That’s the problem. His value is almost entirely in hitting HR. He loses a tick and his value plummets, and far better players than Pete have declined horribly in their early 30s: Pujols and Cabrera, to name just two.
@MLB, Dominguez power has been average at best this year and across 275 games in Yankees system over the last 3 years. He has 13 HRs in 98 games this year and 34 total across all 275. He also plays OF so his future really isn’t relevant to signing a 1B.
The biggest issue I’d say for a Yankees signing an Alonso type player is adding another low OBP power hitter. What their lineup needs is some bats that can get on base frequently for Judge and Stanton.
Having more consistent bats in lineup would also help Judge and Stanton see better pitches. The more they come to the plate with outs or bases empty the less a pitcher is in a position where he’s forced to throw right over the plate.
Common sense and thinking have no place in the Yankees front office. Big name player? They’ll take him and figure it out later.
Alonso isnt a low OBP power bat… his obp since he debuted in 2019 is 344
Then bring him back ala the Yankees and A. Chapman.
I can see a trade between them and Seattle with Alonso moving for Gilbert/France along with other pieces involved between both teams.
Minnesota or Boston could work. Red Sox could offer a package with Casas init. Minnesota has a lot of young OF they could send. Going to be interesting.
One year of Alonso doesn’t get the Mets those guys.
Gilbert is not getting traded for a 1B.
The problem is not that Alonso is a 1B, its that he has just one year of team control left and Gilbert has 4.
If they both had one year left, that would actually be a fair trade.
How is this even debatable
He loves New York and playing for the Mets
“How is this even debatable”,,,,You have to ‘debate” it to consider making your team stronger. On the best run teams everything is always on the table, because sometimes the unpopular move actually makes your team better….Sometimes sentiment, “untouchable” or emotion is not a very good way to run a team. .You think Tampa, LA , Houston or Atlanta wouldn’t trade their sisters, wives or cousins to make their team better?………All that being said, after the “debate” has taken place, I think the Mets should offer Alonso a reasonable 4-5 yr extension with 2 option yrs added on. He is still reasonably young(young enough to be part of the next core in 2 yrs), productive and by all accounts a good citizen and teammate. If he isn’t interested in a reasonable extension, you simply flip him for players or prospects, like you would any other player.
Charlie Culberson
@mlb fan – you are rapidly becoming my second favorite commenter on this site, ever since I saw your “astute business” and “smart baseball” posts on another thread today.
Question for you : the acquisition by teams through trade or free agency of big star sluggers over the last 50 years is a dismal failure (like, 97% failure rate) in terms of turning a team into an appreciably better team.
Do you agree or disagree with this proposition?
“Agree or disagree”…I believe MLB has changed and the one trick pony, slugger will never again have the value he’s had in the past. Pete is a top 5 1bman, but there’s a WIDE gap between him and the top 2 or 3(Freeman, Olson and Goldy).
The top 2 or 3 are not available. Neither is #5,6,7, or 8. So how do the Mets replace his production?
Why in the world would a 28 year old that is in the top 4 at 1B sign that short of a deal.
He is not any other player. That is the whole point. There is no one out there to replace him.
Like always, a bad take from you.
He is not too 4 at first base; maybe top 10 but not all that good all around
@Benjamin101677 Yup. Pete’s also not “a 28 year old” as another commenter claims, in the context of the discussion. It’s a question of whether you sign him for his age 30 and after season.
Among 1Bmen he’s 7th in fWAR in 2023, and 5th in the NL by fWAR for 2020-2023. He’s been within the margin of error with the likes of Max Muncy over the past 4 years, and a little lower than Jake Cronenworth. That’s who we’re talking about.
Best look at the stats. Top 4.
By the way, Cronenworth has more time at 2B than 1B. Stupid comparison.
4th best 1B
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=bat&#…
Don’t be a turd, son. That’s no way to go through life. Shoo.
Top 4 in the NL maybe.
Its not a question. Its a fact. 4th best 1B in baseball the last 3 seasons.
@Jack
Exclude Crone and Muncy. Can’t put guys who log serious innings at higher D positions in a 1 v. 1 WAR comparison. DH and 1B innings do you no favors for WAR.
@MLB Fan
I am just of the mind that Alonso is the face of the Mets like Ohtani is of the Angels and fits in perfectly and no amount of prospects in return for him can replace that
Also, I forgot I said anything and when I woke up this morning and saw all the alerts, I was surprised.
@Lefty_Orioles_Fan
OK, you lost all credibility trying to compare Alonso to Ohtani. You started with the he “loves NY” despite him being a Florida kid, then finished off the credibility loss with comparing him to Ohtani. That’s insanely laughable.
Under that premise, Dave Kingman is comparable to Babe Ruth too. Absolutely laughable.
Hahahaha come on ma n
He’s not comparing them talent-wise. The comparison is looking at it from a fan’s perspective. Pete, like Ohtani is a fan favorite. Everyone gets the fact that you’re a Mets hater but you need to work on your reading comprehension.
There is no 1B that can replace his production on the field. The ones that are as good are old and/or signed long term.
How does trading the 4th best 1B in the game the last 3 seasons make the Mets better?
Who EXACTLY do they get to replace his 11.1 WAR AND 138 OPS+ on the field?
He is not replaceable and that is not debatable.
It’s debatable because he’s going to get a monster contract. Should the Mets give him one if they’re retooling for a few years? Whether Alonso loves the Mets or not is irrelevant. He’s going to ask for what he feels he deserves, and he deserves quite a bit.
MLB fan: Tampa, LA, Houston and Atlanta don’t need to trade players because they have strong farm systems. And I always pick my favorite players by whether or not they’re good citizens.
Houston has the worst farm system in baseball. They don’t have one prospect in the top 250, let alone the top 100.
based on unheralded players coming up to contribute to Astros winning, they have one of the best farm & developmental programs in MLB. Good front offices aren’t looking at the public rankings, or WAR, or any of that irrelevant stuff – they’re looking at player tools, make-up, video, and real life.
The Astros do not have a single prospect in the top 250 after trading for Verlander. Their farm system is a barren wasteland. I don’t care how good the player development staff is, you have to have something to work with and there is nothing there.
They are the epitome of all in. They have to win now because the future is several years of rebuilding like Astros fans suffered through to get the aging core you see on the team now.
one of us is correct, and one of us is incorrect. We shall see, eh?
btw, Chas McCormick was drafted 21st round, 2017, 631st player chosen. He came up to Astros in 2021. Since that debut, he has played in 21 post-season games, including 8 World Series games. If he’s good enough to be the regular center fielder on the current WS champs, he’s good enough for me!
MLB had him ranked as the 25th best Astro prospect in 2020. Maybe Astros’ front office knows way more than the rankers do.
You wanna discuss JP France next?
In 2021, MLB had him as the 18th ranked Houston prospect – that would put him somewhere around the top 600 across all the major leagues? I’m totally impressed with public rankings!!!!!!
Sounds like your Philly fan bias is creeping in here
How does it remotely sound like that? What are you even talking about?
@VonPurpleHayes Genuinely curious, as it’s the sort of phrase I’ve heard a lot of—why do people think Alonso is going to get a monster contract?
2020 to date,
Nimmo 13.0 rWAR
Alonso 11.3 rWAR
As much as Alonso’s agents might like to include 2019 into the proceedings, no projection system includes seasons five years in the past. It’s over the horizon, it’s no longer relevant to future performance, leaving Alonso since the start of 2020 as a 3.7 WAR per 650 PA 1Bman whose defense is not an asset and will only decline from here on out.
That’s a good complementary player, but it’s not close to a superstar. Also, he’ll be 30, not 26-27, and players of his type are notorious for steep declines. His projection, 2025 on out, looks a lot like this according to every system in existence:
2023 – 3.8 WAR
2024 – 3.3 WAR
2025 – 2.7 WAR
2026 – 2.1 WAR
2027 – 1.4 WAR
2028 – 0.7 WAR
2029 – 0.0 WAR aka Replacement Level
For 2025-2029 Pete projects to give you approximately 6.9 rWAR.
He’d have to exceed that by 50% just to warrant a $100m deal. Now, he may be worth a lot more specifically to the NY Mets. Homegrown and all, teh home runzzz and all, beloved by 11 year olds around the state, but that will last about as long as his next five week slump and the Mets will still have to keep paying him, regardless. His aging curve also runs into the aging curves of Lindor and Nimmo, and even Cohen has shown a loss of appetite in the matter of $400m payrolls.
That’s assuming he ages normally, and Alonso isn’t just a normal player. That’s assuming he consistently regresses, and never gets better. That’s assuming that he will always play to his projectsions. I’m not saying that means throw a $100+ million contract at him, but come on, how can you say “this is how he’ll be producing five years from now”? Five years ago, Tommy Pham produced the same amount of WAR as Mike Trout, five years ago, Chris Archer had the 10th highest fWAR among pitchers. That’s a lot of assuming you’re doing there, and you know what assuming does…
I don’t mean this as an insult, but it’s clear you don’t understand what it is projection systems aim to do.
No one who understand them thinks they’re definitive attempts to predict the future, but if your interest is understanding the most likely futures of all possible futures, then they’re where you turn.
I understand that projection systems are not the be all end all. But I don’t believe you can even get a general idea of what Alonso will do five years from now with any projection system. That’s a lot longer than it may seem. I’d take your word for 2024 or 2025, but I don’t see how you can put any level of confidence in saying he’s a replacement level player by 2028.
He’s going to get a monster contract because he hits a ton of dingers. He also plays in a pitcher’s park. He can flirt with the single-season homerun record. And yes, I agree that he’ll decline, but there are a lot of teams who are going to pay him. Homeruns make money.
I am not disagreeing that he will never decline, and I think projection systems are good to a certian degree. But I can’t take any stock whatsoever into what a projection system says five years from now. The baseball landscape has changed so drastically over the last five years to the point I don’t believe any projection system can even give the slightest idea of how any player will produce.
@mlb1225 What projection systems are saying is that a player of this type, of Alonso’s type, age, and performance so far, based on comparing that data with data from over 20,000 players over a century and a half, have historically aged along these lines consistent with more recent trends in aging and performance so that we’re not giving the same weight to how Honus Walrus Mustache did in the 1871 National Association as we are to how Miguel Cabrera did in the AL in 2022 (is he still playing? Yikes!).
In fact that’s exactly what projection systems do: They give us a general idea of what a player’s future looks like. It’s how every team gauges its contract offers, given adjustments for how valuable the player is in other areas (p.r., and so on). It’s why no one will offer Pete $220 million during the 2024-2025 offseason, and why no one offered Justin Turner a 3-year deal six months ago.
Pete is certain to decline, to become no better than replacement level—the only question is, “when”? Based on other slightly subpar defenders at 1B whose main asset by far is their power hitting, that typically happens in those players’ mid30s. As soon as the fast-twitch hitting reflexes go, he doesn’t have anything else to fall back on.
If you want one very possible profile for Pete, look at Chris Davis from 2012-2015 and what came after. Poor Orioles, they were still paying Chris $23 million in 2022.
The projections are specific to 1b and there are a LOT of 1b who fall off in those years. Ryan Howard. Prince Fielder. Chris Davis. That’s where those projections come from they factor those guys in.
I tend to think Alonso is more like Goldschmidt than those guys. But that’s why the projections are what they are.
Again, I don’t see how any projection system can have even the slightiest idea as to how a player will age five years from now. One or two years? Ok, sure. But 2028? You could give me a sample from one million players but you’re still not going to convince me that any projection system can give me even the most general idea of a player five seasons from now.
How many large 1B deals to guys without great bat to ball skills have worked out swimmingly? Odds are against you. A Freddie freeman or Paul Goldschmidt is an elite hitter with power. Alonso is a great power hitter but not an elite hitter.
Alonso doesn’t hit for average he is home run or nothing
You have your regresdion percentage wrong. He should not even begin regression until his age 31 season or 2026.
For 2030, his age 35 season, he projects to have a 2.08 WAR. A total of 19.64 WAR from 2024 to 2030. That is a $180 million value at the current rate.
A deal like Olson signed with the Braves would be a great comp.
@BaseballisLife You’re wildly off on any number of grounds. It’s not regression that’s the primary feature of Pete’s projection, it’s age-related decline. In addition, that you seem to believe that some sort of general decline only begins when a player is 31 (never mind for a bat-only 1Bman) only means you’re not acquainted with even the most basic studies of aging in baseball.
31? You’re 3 to 5 years too late. Everyone who believes as you do points to the thoroughly debunked Bradbury study. Key words; thoroughly debunked.
To put it as simply as possible, if 31 is the average age at which decline began in baseball, then teams and the majors in general would tend strongly to have an average age of 31 or older. That they don’t, and that it isn’t close, should point you in the right direction.
Further, that you think a player like Alonso, who will be two years older than Olson at the time each signed their extension / FA deal and who in the overall isn’t as valuable on the field as Olson, should somehow get the same money and years as Olson, should also point you in the right direction. —Two years older. Not as valuable. Same deal? No, it makes no sense. It’s self-refuting.
You’re just so far off on all this it’s impossible to know what else to say.
Pretty clear you don’t know what the actual aging regression is in MLB. Try learning that first then come back.
All that BS and you got the bottom line wrong. You got both the age regression begins and the annual percentage totally wrong.
@mlb
If you don’t understand how projections can work 5 years out, then you’ll need to look into predictive modeling a bit.
The short answer here is that you look at players who, in the past, were most similar to Pete to this point in his career. You see what happened next over their collective next x years, and figure that Pete will fall somewhere into the vicinity of that. Then you determine what he’s worth based on the probabilities of actual outcome, factor in some other things, and make an offer. Of course nearer term projections are more likely to be accurate, but 5 years out isn’t all that far and there is plenty of data to come up with a most likely or median trajectories.
You will of course have outliers, like Justin Verlander who have broken the aging curve for old flamethrowers. But you also have the Strasburgs and Corbins on the low end. The ideal approach is to not be sentimental or otherwise view the situation through rose colored glasses, come up with an objective $, stick to it, and weigh that against other factors like position to compete and trade value.
To this end, I think they listen to offers this winter but hold him to to deadline. I believe they pick up two pretty good sps in FA and count on a collective improvement in the lineup. Maybe swap younger players in for Vogelbach, Canha. They’ll be competitive, but not $500m~ so. And they’ll move him (and other rentals / vets) if they’re not in a good position to make the playoffs, as they should.
With all due respect, you do realize that the best projections include data points on tens of millions of people who never played MLB? Because baseball skills are fundamentally dependent on human neurophysiology? And neurophysiology changes (or ages) in a highly predictable fashion? And when neurophysiologically-mediated baseball skills decline, then baseball performance declines? Obviously the models cannot anticipate whether Pete will get injured, or when, but the models can estimate the likelihood of injury. And the models can also account for rule changes and other secular changes. Theres this thing called AI? Maybe you’ve heard of it?
Above comment intended for @mlb woops
Source for this claim?
@baseballislife Even if you know a thing or two about predictive modelling, if you are not acquainted with research on the aging brain (including, yes, declines in sensory,
perceptual, and motor function in the 3rd decade of life ie the late 20s) you will see only part of the picture.
Understanding analytics without an understanding of biology is worthless when trying to predict performance. The best modellers leverage data from multiple sources including biomarkers
Dude I just told you why they are what they are.
I don’t disagree with the premise but Davis is not a good comp. Pete is a special HR hitter as his career K% has been near elite. He is not a three true outcomes hitter.
Chicks dig the long ball.
Alonso’s career OPS + is teo points below Freeman’s and 4 below Goldschmidt. He is an elite hitter at an OPs+ of 139.
Career .255 hitter isn’t all or nothing unless he’s hitting 150 home runs a year.
His biggest comparison is Jim Thome. Thome did alright in his later years.
That’s a very good comp.
@Von
I love Alonso, but the Mets should definitely field offers for him. I wouldn’t sign him beyond his age 35 season. You’re right though, someone will pay him a monster contract. As Ralph Kiner said “Home run hitters drive Cadillacs, singles hitters drive Ford’s.”
@mookie1 This is it exactly. But I do think Alonso is a bit more special than the average slugging first basemen. Someone comped him to Thome before and I think that’s totally fair. He’s on a HoF path. He will definitely decline and someone may regret the contract, but he still has a ton of peak years left.
He’s going to ask for more than he deserves, which is the problem for Met fans that worship him.
Imo, an 7/160M dollar extension is more than fair. Pete, however, is a union first member. I think he’s looking for a big overpay or he goes FA..
I keep seeing people claiming that the Mets will be retooling or rebuilding, but I cannot find a single time that anyone that actually makes decisions for the Mets has said that.
Maybe you have information I don’t. Can you share links?
@outinleftfield Actions speak louder than words. Selling both Max and Verlander was quite telling. I do not think they’ll be going all-in on FA next year, and quite frankly their roster needs a lot of work. I definitely see them competing for a Wild Card with a few signings, but that’s quite different from there 2021 and 2022 plans.
Go read what Rosenthal said about all this today. theathletic.com/4768715/2023/08/11/mets-free-agenc…
“The Mets are going to sign free agents. They never said they wouldn’t. What they are not going to do is sign future Hall of Fame pitchers in their late 30s or early 40s, seeing as how that didn’t work out so well.”
The Mets will continue to sign FA and spend.
“As Eppler said, this was not a rebuild, not a liquidation, not a fire sale. Nor is it a withdrawal from spending. No, the Mets’ plan, according to sources briefed on the club’s thinking, is to sign free agents whose trajectories line up with the young players they are developing for 2025 and beyond.”
Executives around the league do not believe that Cohen will change his MO, just that he will not sign any more late 30s and early 40s pitchers and position players.
Look for the Mets to be in on Ohtani, Yamamoto, Lee, Urias, and other under 30 players.
“Eppler was the general manager who signed him for the Angels. Cohen was on the field at the Tokyo Dome in March before Ohtani’s start against Italy in the World Baseball Classic. If anyone thinks Cohen is going to pass on an opportunity to pursue the greatest player of our generation and maybe greatest of all time, they haven’t been paying attention. Ohtani’s value exceeds what he does on the field, which is pretty damn valuable. But no one knows what he truly wants, so he easily could sign with another club.”
“The Orix Buffaloes are expected to post Yamamoto this offseason. Eppler watched him in person during the WBC, and according to the Mets’ network, SNY also traveled to Japan to see him pitch this year.”
Again, the Mets WILL spend in FA and Cohen said as much. They just won’t be all in on aging future HOFers and other ancient players.
Great read. Thanks for sharing. Rosenthal supports everything I have been saying in this thread and others about the Mets.
@JackStrawb I totally disagree. The evidence is clear that the beer gut helps hitters sustain their energy & prevent abdominal injuries as they reach the later stages of their career. Not everyone has that innate talent. Alonso does. Great long term signing IMO
@yetipro A thoroughly awesome post fully endorsed by the John Kruk Fan Club. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
Goldy is a great hitter. Alonso is a great power hitter. I wouldn’t love to give Pete the 7-8 year 22-25MM dollar deal he’ll probably get from someone.
The padres have a massive hole at 1B and love giving out crazy deals.
@Bstrowman9 This is exactly my thinking. I don’t necessarily think it’s wise to give Alonso the deal he’s going to get, but he’s going to get it for certain.
@Von
Yeah. There’s always a desperate team in the off-season that wants to make a splash or a GM on the hot seat. No doubt it’ll be a big deal. Probably around $150MM or so. I wouldn’t want my team to give it out.
@Lefty_Orioles_Fan I bet he’d love playing in his hometown area of Tampa and with the Rays even more.
Lol the Rays won’t be in the market to give Alonso stupid money.
That wasn’t my point. I was addressing the stupid notion that for some reason northeasterners like saying all the time about players love playing in NY and for certain NY teams when the fact is those players are from other parts of the country or world, and prefer living in those other parts of the country instead of NY.
Alonso loves his hometown and, despite playing in NY (for the moment), has always loved living in the Tampa/St. Pete area. And if the Rays were to even approach trying to give Alonso the amount of money the big markets would, Alonso would choose Tampa over every other single team in MLB.
Players love playing where they get the most money, but will always choose home if they could make that or close to that money at home. People need to stop with that ridiculous “x-player loves playing in NY” fiction. If that were true, those players would move there. Clearly Alonso has not and never will – the most would be renting a place or buying a secondary home there, but he’s a Florida kid. That’s where he loves being. That’s where he’d love to play. Good luck with that false narrative that people who love living in Florida love NY. Simply not true. Get over yourselves.
In closing, good luck at signing Alonso to an extension. Gonna have to pay a lot more if that franchise continues to be the laughing stock they always make themselves into. Too bad MLB doesn’t have a Cap&Floor system because, if they did, Alonso would be counting the days until he can wear his Rays or Marlins jersey.
What next about a player that”loves playing in NY”? Will people say Lindor does…or did his comments after he was traded there, before he re-signed, make it clear that he was only there because of the money?
If he likes playing for the Mets so much why not trade him for prospects and then bring him back after 2024? Should be easy for them.
@justme789
Because they know the minute Alonso is out the door, he is almost certain to not come back because he doesn’t love NY or favor the Mets as much as norhteasterners love pushing that false narrative. Alonso is a Florida kid. How many Florida kids love NY? Completely different styles of living. If Alonso were traded instead of given ridiculous extension money. Alonso will not be back…just like former teammate who is also a Florida kid in DeGrom. Mets fans said DeGrom loved NY and playing there too, but clearly that wasn’t true. Same thing would happen with Alonso. First chance he would get, he would sign with a team in the southern part of the country. If the Braves, Astros or Rangers came calling, he’d be suiting up for one of them. If the Rays or Marlins even came close to approaching Alonso’s market, he’d be headed to one of them – with a preference to his hometown Rays in Tampa.
He’s a Florida kid. He doesn’t love NY any more than DeGrom and any Floridian does. Way different worlds. Northeasterners need to stop with that false narrative. And they need to realize that every state has multiple metropolitan cities, so that “everyone wants to be in NY” narrative is highly antiquated and has been for about 50 years. People from other parts of the country consider NY a dump mixed with highly snobby wealthy or lower income trashy people.
Alonso will come back if they trade him and are willing to pay him. And it’s not like Steve Cohen doesn’t have money.
Marlins Fan- do you read anything besides MLBTR? Here’s a link that you might find informative.
sports.yahoo.com/mets-pete-alonso-calls-york-01262…
By the way I am not a Mets fan and live on the other side of the country so I don’t know how much Pete Alonso does or doesn’t want to stay in Queens. All I’m saying is that if he does want to stay in Queens that is an argument in favor of trading him, not against it. Stave Cohen has more money than God. There is no reason they can’t pull off a creative move like trading Pete for prospects then bringing him back a year later.
@MarlinsFanBase I live in Florida, moved here to lovely Naples from NYC a year ago. I spent thousands at Shea Stadium and Citi Field going to hundreds of games and now attend as many Rays and Marlins games as I can. I’m going to put a few things out there, first of all one idea that irritates me is the “pressure of playing in NY” BS. That’s something people need to shut up about. There is also a lot of idiocy said about players wanting to be somewhere, particularly people from there. Many of the “fans” up there rattle off nonsense like that however still know that the dollar bill is what rules all. I knew deGrom didn’t want to play there when he hit FA. The guy wanted to retire in the south with his family and on a good team (which is totally his right as a human being), but I don’t think anyone was under the impression he “loved NY.” There are a few players who really did genuinely like playing there and felt comfortable. Derek Jeter and David Wright for example – as long as they were paid competitively they knew that staying there was a big part of their legacy. Pete doesn’t reach that level for me, as much as I love the guy, he’s just not the “franchise” type. Philly fans may think of Rollins for example. Of course however there are situations like what happened with Freddie Freeman where nobody expected him to leave, and even now I still see articles or quotes claiming he was unhappy to leave Atlanta. Ultimately it may be in their best interest to trade him, and if that’s the case, this off season would be the time to do it while he still has an extra year of control. Years ago when the Mets traded Dickey and Beltran my brother lost his mind about both. I remember telling him they were the right moves. He’s lost his mind again over Max, JV, and DRob, and again I’m telling him this is long overdue and imo still not enough. I’m glad I’m not the one making the decisions.
@Ella B
Do you believe anything besides a good narrative to sell clicks and to keep fans happy?
If NY is “home” to Alonso, why does he still like in Florida? He has the money to lives anywhere on the planet he wants to.
Keep believing the the media stuff. Do you still write letters to Santa Claus too?
@sfes
Now this is a well stated post. I’m with you about the fans that spout off that nonsense from all sides. That’s why I responded the way I did. It’s ridiculous when a fan falls for that fiction of a player, who has lived his entire life somewhere else, loves the city he’s playing in for a few years, so he’ll stay. All the while, he still lives in the city or town that he has always lived in. So a millionaire will love one place, but stay living in another that he doesn’t work in? Yeah, that makes so much sense to those idiots.
And with DeGrom, I remember certain Mets fans squawking about how he loves NY. But of course, those fans were among the ones that bashed him when it became clear that he didn’t just before he signed with the Rangers.
And yes, Naples is lovely. One of the best parts of Florida in my opinion…especially if you live near or closer to the rural/semi-rural area west of the Golden Panther Refuge. Beautiful place to live that gives you everything. I’ve actually been looking at the area.
Now you’ve lived in both worlds of Florida and NY, you know that for people that have lived their entire or nearly all of their lives in Florida, they aren’t likely to like NY. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen that people down here are not fond of NY, NY sports, NY anything, etc…and even in stuff like lifestyle with activities which many in Florida are outdoors and yearround, and lifestyle with culture, etc. Floridians love their home and NY is pretty much far too different.
And with the pressures of NY thing, it is annoying. Guys that can’t handle pressure will be triggered by pressure from anything. No one location is really a factor. It’s just for some players, certain locations may have more of certain triggers.
I agree that all those that come up with the false narratives need to just shut the pieholes. “NY pressure” and “everyone wants to play in NY” or “x-player loves NY” are false narratives that people need to stop pushing because it just shows how very little they know about the world and people.
Excellent post by you @sfes.
He doesn’t even read the articles on MLBTR, let alone other sources of baseball news. All he reads is the comments.
So your “logic” is that if a guy loves playing and living in a city, trade him away from that city because he won’t take offense that you made him and his family move away from the place he loves being? Seriously?
Sure, why not? I think by now he already has a good enough grasp on the borough of Queens and what playing and living there is like.
For the purposes of this exercise I am assuming the Mets are actually willing to pay him once he hits FA as opposed to trying to lowball him like the Red Sox did with Jon Lester.
Are you really dense enough to think that major league players don’t live in the city they play in during the season?
Alonso has a home in Florida and lives in the NYC area from late March through early October.
So which is home? Which does he spend more time at?
I live in Jupiter. Next time you are going to be taking in a Marlins game let me know and my wife and I will try make it down.
He doesnt live in Quuens. He lives a half mile from Gerrit Cole in my hometown of Greenwich Connecticut.
Players are people. When they get traded away they rarely sign back with the team that forced them to move their family away from a place they loved living and playing. You would be hard pressed to find more than one or two of Alonso’s caliber since FA started.
There is no reason to take that chance. The Mets should extend him this offseason.
If they can extend him or even if they can’t but want to contend next year then yeah keep him. But that trade value ain’t getting higher as his club control winds down and the ability to QO him vanishes.
Usually teams don’t even try to bring back players they traded away in FA. Those that do don’t seem to be at a disadvantage relative to any other team. You’d be more hard pressed to find even one player who verifiably held being traded against his former team once he became a FA.
And on top of all that, Steve Cohen can certainly afford to just offer Pete more and more money until he finally caves and says “Ok, you win. I’ll come back,” if he wants.
Name a high level player that was traded away and came back a year later.
I can name 10 for every 1 you can name that refused to come back specifically *because* they were traded.
And no. Just because the player ultimately didn’t come back doesn’t exactly mean it was *because* they were traded.
Wouldn’t that be impossible to answer unless BIL has inside knowledge?
Look across the bridge. Aroldis Chapman. That’s how they got Torres who has been a big part of their core.
@MarlinsFanBase Interestingly enough in my line of business I meet a lot of people personally. I live and work closer to Marco Island which is full of mostly out of staters (a LOT) of people from Boston and NY/NJ so when they see my Mets decorations and MLB network on my TV they get into a lot of baseball talk. But as for most of the locals, yes they hate north easterners, especially the ones with wild “political” views I won’t touch with a 10 foot pole. I joke to my brother that after 40 years of pain we should just become Rays or Marlins fans since we go to so many of their games anyways. I fully expected deGrom to sign with someone like Atlanta as the offseason rumors were churning, and as for his decision to go to Texas, I wish him all the luck and success in the world. Just not against us! As far as trading Pete Alonso, again yeah in a perfect world Cohen could make a handshake agreement with him and pull a Chapman, but as much as the guy does say he loves New York, money and winning speak volumes. He deserves what he put his time in for just like the rest of the guys who hit free agency do. Cohen has said from the beginning that he wanted to try to emulate what the Dodgers did by shooting the payroll up to try to compete short term while he rebuilds the org from the top down long term, including scouting, drafting, analytics, etc. So I don’t know why all this movement is surprising anyone. Atlanta is built to dominate the league for the next 10000 years, the Marlins look like they may finally be developing the pitching we’ve been talking about, and the Phillies are NL champs. This is the perfect time to reset and rebuild and with his resources if he hires the right President of Baseball Operations they could potentially turn it around quickly, though I’m not holding my breath. Naples is beautiful, yes and even after growing up in the suburbs of NYC living a lucky life with the family and opportunities I had, I’m thrilled to be here. I do love being able to still hear Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez do their schtick during broadcasts (though the blackout rules are insanely archaic and stupid.). But yeah, any player would be stupid to say he didn’t want to play in a particular market. That would torpedo their bargaining chips. Whether not not Pete loves the area is irrelevant if they don’t show him respect by paying him what he’s owed and a clear plan laid out on how they will compete and how well they implement it. That was a huge part in Wright signing long term when Alderson sat down with him and explained his plan. Interestingly enough, the rebuilding trades he made led to their next World Series team. That’s what I keep trying to remind other Mets fans.
@LFGSD619 The point is it simply doesn’t matter how often players do or don’t sign with teams that traded them if he’s not going to delve any deeper as to why. He is comparing Pete Alonso to scenarios where the player’s original team doesn’t make a single effort to reach out to him or his representation once he makes it free agency. Or maybe they try to bring him back but someone else offers him way more money. Like I said, that strategy working is predicated on the team actually being willing and able to pay him. We already know Steve Cohen is “able to pay” anything. I don’t know how much he wants to sign Pete long term in that I don’t have Steve Cohen’s personal phone # in my contacts but as a baseball fan it would make sense to want to sign him long term.
@sfes…
“As far as trading Pete Alonso, again yeah in a perfect world Cohen could make a handshake agreement with him and pull a Chapman, but as much as the guy does say he loves New York, money and winning speak volumes.”
I mean, does Steve Cohen suddenly NOT have money? And would the Mets NOT be in a better position to compete post 2024 if they trade Pete for prospects now?
@justme789 That’s a possibility, sure. That’s what I said. But don’t forget about the winning part. Also, not all prospects pan out. The Cubs rebuild got them a championship, the Astros rebuild was great, but the Phillies for example had their fans trashing their rebuild for a while til they finally broke through last year. KC and Detroit’s aren’t going so well. I personally would probably try to rebuild the team myself but if anyone has the resources to do it quicker it’s Steve Cohen. However there’s a lot of luck involved, and they’re going to need to do a better job making decisions then they have over the last 8 years.
@sfes I didn’t “forget about the winning part.” Statistically speaking the Mets will win more games after 2024 if they trade Pete Alonso than if they don’t, all other things equal. Prospects might not always pan out but statistically the prospects they could get for Pete are more likely to pan out (and will have a higher median future value) than the 4th/5th round sandwich pick they would get from QOing Pete.
@justme789 I’ve said on more than one comment here that were I in charge, I’d trade him this offseason. Glad it’s not my job.
Name one.
A few have mentioned it in interviews about former teams. But for the most part it would be hard to know.
I can’t find a single high level FA that was resigned 1 year after being traded.
I do understand human nature and forcing a player to move his family away from an area he loves and has lived in for 5-6 years is going to tick them off.
Aroldis Chapman never expressed his love for NY and had played there for just 3 months. What brought him back was a record contract for a reliever.
Alonso is a home grown Met who has lived in NY area for 5 years.
Different situation.
Now if Chapman had signed back with the Reds, then you would have a comparable situation. He didn’t. He went for the money.
I delved into why. That you are a teenager that doesn’t understand human nature yet is obvious.
That it has not happened before makes my argument the cogent one.
GMs and owners don’t trade away home grown talent that they want to keep on their teams long term in their walk years. Why? Because they understand human nature and the fact that those players would be ticked off about having to move their families away and would not sign back.
Its why you have not been able to name a single high level home grown player like Alonso that has done it.
@BIL Well, yeah, of course he got the money. That’s what they earn and deserve. Pete Alonso has been carrying the Mets through awful times. Why should he feel obligated to give them a discount? Especially when Cohen has been doling out stupid money to Lindor, Scherzer, JV, and Nimmo. Pete has been there longer than most of them.
Who are you calling a teenager? I’ve been reading this website since 2005. Huh?
“Name one.”
I already said I can name 10 for every 1 you can name that refused to sign *because* they were traded.
“A few have mentioned it in interviews about former teams.”
Cool. Who?
“I can’t find a single high level FA that was resigned 1 year after being traded.”
Must not know how to use Google then.
“I do understand human nature and forcing a player to move his family away from an area he loves and has lived in for 5-6 years is going to tick them off.”
No evidence that that is true.
“Aroldis Chapman never expressed his love for NY and had played there for just 3 months. What brought him back was a record contract for a reliever.”
That’s exactly it! The Yankees were willing to pay.
“Alonso is a home grown Met who has lived in NY area for 5 years.
Different situation.
Now if Chapman had signed back with the Reds, then you would have a comparable situation. He didn’t. He went for the money.”
Alonso can come back for both reasons. Mets have a lot of things working in their favor for this one.
“I delved into why.”
Another lie.
“That you are a teenager that doesn’t understand human nature yet is obvious.”
Well you are indeterminately wrong about my age then.
“That it has not happened before makes my argument the cogent one.”
First of all, it has happened. Second of all, nothing cogent about your argument when you can’t cite a single specific example of a player refusing to sign with his original team specifically *because* they traded him.
“GMs and owners don’t trade away home grown talent that they want to keep on their teams long term in their walk years. Why? Because they understand human nature and the fact that those players would be ticked off about having to move their families away and would not sign back.”
So many things wrong with this but mostly that a lot of those teams are contending so trading the player doesn’t make sense even if you know 100% he’s walking and a lot of those players who the teams didn’t trade because they wanted to keep them (Bryce Harper and soon to be Shohei Ohtani for instance) didn’t sign back anyway. And the ones who were traded and didn’t sign back? There is no evidence to prove or even really suggest that they would have stayed HAD they not been traded, all other things equal.
“Its why you have not been able to name a single high level home grown player like Alonso that has done it.”
And it’s why you haven’t been able to name a single player of any level that verifiably held being traded against his former team in contract talks 😉
To sum this all up, saying “No high level player has signed with a team that traded them therefore them trading them definitely was a factor in them not signing” is pretty much the epitome of the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy. And it isn’t even true (see the aforementioned A. Chapman). If you honestly believe that Pete Alonso will take a paycut to not sign with the team he has already spent most of his career with if they do trade him then we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Well, we would have to make assumptions about how many prospects they would get in return for one year of alonso, and their rankings. I find it hard to trust those statistical models when we’re currently looking at a top 15 mlb hitter in his career so far by WRC+, OPS, and just standard run production. What are the real chances they get that in return? Of course, what he projects to be in 5 years would be less valuable, but i think the next four years he’ll maintain his production until now. Tough call, but the met fanbase will likely hate it, which does matter.
What it really comes down to is how much prospect value could the Mets get by trading Pete Alonso this offseason and how much more would it cost them to sign Pete Alonso if they trade him first? If the former is greater than the latter, you trade him. And remember that prospects are worth more than money for people like Steve Cohen and that the Mets aren’t exactly sunk for 2024 yet (although trading Scherzer and Verlander doesn’t help them) so having Pete on the roster in 2024 alone still could have value to them.
Very tough call… not one i would want to have to make
Lindor is one of the top SS in baseball. He is earning his salary. Not stupid money.
Nimmo is on pace for a 3.0+ WAR which is worth around $27 million. He is earning his salary.
Scherzer and Verlander were not. They are gone and promising prospects have been added to the teams farm system.
Alonso will get his money. No one is expecting him to give the Mets a discount or the Mets offering less than market value. If the team is smart they will extend him because there is simply no replacement available at close to his level of play for 2024, 2025, and possibly not in 2026. There is no one in the Mets system either.
Not you. Justme is a kid.
You still didn’t name even one. Not one. All that BS and you could not refute my argument. You just dug yourself a bigger hole.
Chapman spent 3 months in NY. Already blew that fallacy out of the water.
Try again. You can’t name one single home grown player of Alonsos quality that was traded and them signed back with the team that traded him away.
Glad I found your new account Ryan. Was wondering when it would pop up after your last one was banned. Now I can mute this one too.
If you can’t name a time it has happened, how can you call his argument wrong? Chapman is not one. So name one.
Web, Who?
And you didn’t name a single player who actually held being traded against his former team when he was a free agent. Not one. Until you can do that, all your prognosticating about how the player might not like this or the fanbase might not like that means bo didly squat.
@OILF Because he hasn’t named even one time that a player refused to sign with a team specifIcally BECAUSE they were traded. Truth of the matter is usually when a player is traded his original team doesn’t even try to bring him back. Take your Padres for example. After they traded Andrew Cashner in 2016 I don’t think they reached out to him or his representation a single time that offseason. For all we know they could have been his first choice even after being traded. He can’t sign with them if they don’t offer him a contract.
The point is the Yankees were willing to pay Chapman so he came back. No one is expecting Pete Alonso to leave money on the table to sign with the Mets. Like I said from the beginning, for the purposes of this exercise I am assuming that the Mets are willing to pay Pete Alonso. That they won’t try to lowball him. You might not be able to do that but guys like Steve Cohen who have more money than God? They can.
Giving yourself away again there web.
The Yankees weren’t even the highest bidder for Chapman during the 2016-17 offseason. That was the Marlins. So if $ was the only reason he signed he would have signed with them.
thescore.com/mlb/news/1177963
Considering how 17 and 19 ended they might have been better off letting him go to south beach.
@sfes Agreed. Still were able to sign him even though they traded him and even though they were not the highest bidder.
I found him. Thanks for the heads up. Got to love the mute button.
Why have a conversation with yourself from 2 different accounts outinleftfield?
@Lefty_Orioles_Fan Isn’t that more the argument for Pete taking 4/$100m plus a vesting option, not for the Mets offering him something like 6/$162m?
In practice I wouldn’t be too surprised if a team in chaos like the Mets let Alonso save face and beat Nimmo’s deal by cutting down the effective value of the money by offering something like 9/$180m or even 10/200m. In 10 years that $20m AAV is going to be a lot closer to $10m in actual value.
Another albatross contract coming right up!
Keep. Hate to say this but shipping out Verlander, Canha, and Scherzer were good moves. They should gauge interest in Loriano in offseason too.
Who is Loriano?
I think he means Lindor, but he’s untradable and is just fine as their SS
@sfes Lindor’s not remotely untradable (astonishingly enough) given the context of last offseason’s deals, when 5 WAR shortstops turning 30 were going for deals in the 10/280-320 range.
Lindor has 8/272m left on his contract. The Mets should look to move him, and he’d be smart to be open to discussing it (family issues aside, of course, since there may be plenty there we know nothing about) given the chaos the team is in and its ongoing status as one of the worst-run teams in baseball.
Who plays SS? Prospects are years away and none are going to be better overall. He’s an AS caliber SS plus he has turned into a really great guy with fans and in the clubhouse.
@dugmet Excellent question and at the moment there’s no remotely clear answer, but I don’t think you want to keep your fortunes hooked to a 30 year old SS in 2024 (and 30-37 from 2024-2031) because for the moment you can’t answer it.
The corollary is, if he follows a normal aging curve for players of his type, after a couple of years you’re going to have a 32 year old (then a 33 year old, then a 34 year old) SS in significant decline making piles of money you’re really going to wish you had available to put towards a better, younger player.
The Mets got the timing wrong on signing a centerpiece player to a rich contract, and this is an opportunity to recalibrate. Assuming 2024 is something of a punt year, then by not dealing Lindor this offseason (assuming they can), one of the things they’re probably committing to is effectively signing Lindor in the 2024-25 offseason, a 31-37 yo SS, to a 7 year deal from 2025-31 for 238m just as they’re hoping to catch fire with a younger team.
Welcome back free agent Amed Rosario!
Realistically what would the return be for Lindor in a trade. Serious question if you’re considering the idea.
I dont think their SS prospects are that far away if we look at acuna. Williams is maybe a year further but they’re likely the mets MI in 2025. But idk if trading lindor is the best move. I think more likely is mcneil gets moved this offseason to free up 2b and some salary.
@its_happening The interesting place to start, exclusive of public relations concerns, might be: Would you give him away if you could?
If the Dodgers said this offseason, “we’ll take Lindor off your hands, but given he’s still owed 8/273m we’re only offering a couple of 30 year olds in A ball,” would you as the Mets GM say yes?
I would, without much hesitation, thinking ‘we got 2 good and one decent season from Francisco, but his age doesn’t mesh well with our rebuilding plans, and that $34.1 million AAV and $273 million salary overall can almost certainly be better spent on a younger player still in the peak of his career for several more seasons.
What’s your thinking on this?
Lindor is a lot better than just fine. He has been arguably the best shortstop in baseball over the last 2 seasons.
Yeah. Trade arguably the best shortstop in baseball the last two seasons. That will make your team better.
Give me a break. Lindor is going nowhere. He is the singular linch pin of that team. Cohen and Eppler are not stupid.
Acuna is a 2B. Mauricio is not a SS either.
Lindor will not be traded. Arguably the best shortstop in the game in the prime of his career. He is the player the Mets are building around.
5 WAR is not decent. Its insanely good. Do you ever get anything even remotely correct?
“Do you ever get anything even remotely correct?” says the guy who said that Spencer Strider got credited with 2 full years of service time for 2022 and that Manny Machado said while he was with the Dodgers that he’s not signing with a New York team under any circumstances lol.
Taking the emotion out of it, I still think they don’t do it. They need to put butts in the seats until they find their new window they are shooting for (supposedly 25-26) and trading Lindor or Alonso might send many fans into a riot at this point. I’m never a fan of team brass following the fans whims, but even so that’s 60+ homers per year given away for nothing when they have the funds to afford it and to build a team around them.
@JackStrawb not against the idea of dealing Lindor. If you do, deal Alonso and Nimmo too. Go full rebuild, hope McNeil picks things up and deal him too. Build around Alvarez and Baty.
Cohen isn’t afraid to spend. Depending on how the trades shake out the Mets could be in spend-mode sooner rather than later.
Dodgers could be a landing spot. Red Sox and Yankees too.
Acuna is listed as SS and has played far more games there
“Taking the emotion out of it…”
“… and trading Lindor or Alonso might send many fans into a riot at this point.”
So taking the emotion out of it you argue a completely emotional, ungrounded in pure baseball sense move?
K.
At least I admit it when I make a mistake. I provided LINKS to Machado quote. No mistake there. No mistakes here today.
So please, if you can’t bring facts, stfu.
Cohen said the Mets will compete in 2024. So their window is 2024.
Trading arguably the best SS in baseball and an irreplaceable 1B in this market puts off winning for 4-5 years.
That won’t happen.
Every single source says Acuna will be a 2B in the majors. All of them. Unless you can show one that says he will stick at SS, then he is a future 2B.
You provided no links for Machado saying he doesn’t want to play in NY. You made that one up.
What are you talking about? I wasn’t arguing anything. I didn’t say I would riot, did I? I said that many fans would. I’m glad I’m not in charge of those decisions. Frankly I would scrap most of the team and begin a true rebuild. But yeah, good job reading what wasn’t there?
K.
Yes. I did. Go back and look at the thread.
Its what he does best.
Here is the thread in question.
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/02/padres-sign-michael-wac…
Which comment is the one where you provided a link to Manny Machado saying, while he was with the Dodgers, that he’s absolutely not signing with a New York team? I’ll wait.
I know he likely projects as a 2b, but his natural position is SS, so if they did trade lindor, I’m sure he could take that spot. And williams is a year behind. I don’t think theyll trade lindor anyway, but they have org depth at the position.
I know it won’t happen. I’m saying IF you do trade Lindor, you clean the deck.
Still waiting.
BTV says Lindor’s contract is underwater but not by a lot. But remember that he’ll be 30 later this year so his trade value isn’t likely to go up as the months and years go by.
Still waiting for you to name one home grown player of Alonsos caliber that was traded and then signed back as a free agent.
Last season Lindor was THE best SS in baseball by fWAR. 2nd best by bWAR. This season he is the 3rd best by both. He has definitely been better than fine.
He won’t. Ryan can’t. He is pathological.
Not sure who “Ryan” is. But usually when someone makes a remark like that they are really calling themselves out for whatever they are projecting on others. Good to know that you operate like that.
I will when you share the link to Manny Machado saying while he was with the Dodgers that he’s absolutely not signing with either of the two New York teams under any circumstances.
Seeing as I’ve already seen how you operate on here, I won’t hold my breath.
outinleftfield, websoulsurfer and BaseballisLife are all the same guy you can obviously tell.
So they will not offering Ohtani 600M contract and lets Ohtani stay in LA?
He’s staying in los Angeles the los Angeles dodgers
The Mets were never going to be in the running for Ohtani. Neither are the Yankees or Phillies. He will stay on the left coast
We heard the same about Harper. Could be true, but there may be pressure for Ohtani to sign the best offer. I’m sure if the Yankees, Mets or mystery team really opens their wallets, Ohtani will consider moving.
Whatever you Phillies, Mets, and Yankees fans are smoking that makes you think your teams have any realistic chance of signing Ohtani you need to market it as you will make a fortune. Ohtani wants to play for an organization that has a chance to win every year, and that is not any of the above teams. Only one team really fits for Ohtani if he chooses to leave the Angels and that is the Dodgers. I do not like the Dodgers but I will bet my dollars to your dimes that Ohtani will be wearing Dodger blue next season
Phillies were in the WS last season and have the #1 WC spot right now. Yankees have missed the playoffs how many times this century?
Eppler signed Ohtani for the Angels. Any team he is the GM of has at least a shot at Ohtani.
Ohtani has never said he wants to stay on the West Coast. That is fan fantasy.
Most people miss that. Eppler was the reason that Ohtani signed with the Angels.
Ohtani will be a Dodger
While The Dodgers and others are focused on blowing Ohtani away with offers, The Mets should swoop in and pilfer Julio Urias.
@theknuckler Agreed. The Mets could even contend next year without sacrificing future contention by signing Urias (age 27) and Y Yamamoto (25), both of whom will still be in their primes for the next 3 to 5 years.
A top rotation and average offense has been a solid recipe for contention for a century Add those two, build a solid bullpen, buy a Justin Turner / JD Martinez DH…
Still, that’s probably something in the neighborhood of $500-600 million in new contracts, and close to $1 billion once you add LT penalties. Might be too rich even for Cohen.
I keep saying signing urias and yamamoto are smart long term moves. I dont think they’ll be that expensive. I dont see urias off a subpar year more than 6-180, 7-200 type range, and idk on yamamoto bc sp from japan tend to get signed for less. The 5-75 for senga looks like great value so far.
They will be expensive. Obviously not Ohtani money but those 2 guys are going to get big pay days
With the caveat that 6/180m, 7/200m is a LOT of money to pay a pitcher (as Stephen Strasburg fans will attest), particularly in the sense that it’s a lot to eat if it goes wrong and if we assume even Steve Cohen has limits.
I do think Yamamoto’s going to make a veritable fortune. Not hard to argue he’s Japan’s best pitcher, and he’s only 25, simply unprecedented an age for a top starter to hit the FA market (or posting system). Still, given their age and talent he and Urias plug beautifully into pretty much any path the NY Mets front office chooses to take.
@Ma4170 Btw, as much as Eppler hasn’t impressed, to whatever extent he was responsible for the Senga signing, so far it looks like a steal.
5/75m for a starter 3rd in NL ERA, tied for 10th in pitcher rWAR with Zack Wheeler, projecting to more than 170 innings in 2023… he’s throwing his fork ball with the US ball so well that it’s the best pitch for strikes in the majors…. The Mets appear to have handled him extremely well, finding a smart balance b/t babying him and getting him used to a 5-man rotation, mostly, but not exclusively on 5 days rest… I don’t think there’s a team in the majors where Senga wouldn’t improve their 3-man postseason rotation.
Yamamoto is 25 years old and almost all of the projection for him are in the 8/200 range plus the posting fee.
@jack
Agreed… felt like a smart gamble at the time, and so far it looks that way
I know i definitely liked the 5-75 deal with his upside over bassitt’s deal and his (ultimately it did come down to a choice between the two)
I wonder if senga’s experience w the mets so far will help in pursuit of yamamoto
As crazy as it is to say, thats not that expensive anymore
Oh, how the Cubs need a power bat in the middle of their lineup, and they also have a lot of prospects working their way towards being MLB ready.
Not a terrible idea, however look at how much the cubs value their defense and ground ball pitchers. They will want a better defensive first basemen to continue helping with run prevention. We have greatly missed Rizzo’s defense since he’s been gone. I don’t think the cubs would really covet Alonso.
Alonso grades out as a decent 1B defensively, and they could also move him to DH as well. The Cubs have a few decent hitters, but the one thing they really lack is someone with 35-40 HR potential. I’d much rather see them make a trade for Alonso rather than make a mistake of signing someone like Matt Chapman to an overpriced contract, which I could see them doing.
Personally, I’d rather the cubs resign Bellinger and once/if PCA is ever ready, then move Cody to first base. He plays plus defense at both positions. Also takes pressure off having to develop Mervis who then could be traded to fill some other need.
Cubs should be able to do both and then some.. re-sign Bellinger as long as it’s a reasonable deal, and trade for Alonso. Once PCA comes up, move Belli to RF or 1B and you can take turns DHing Suzuki and Alonso. That gives you a pretty deep lineup.
Hoerner 2B
Swanson SS
Bellinger RF
Alonso 1B
Happ LF
Suzuki DH
PCA CF
Gomes C
Madrigal 3B
A strong NO for signing Chapman. On the fence for acquiring Alonso. He won’t be cheap as far as a trade and to resign/extend. What about a trade with the Southsiders for Andrew Vaughn. He’ll require a decent prospect return but he’s 25 and controllable until 2027. Keep/resign Jeimer Candelario for 3rd base.
Cub fans: Yoour team is not going to trade for Alonso. Despite what the cub (all broadcasters) think, the cubs are not going to sign Ohtani. They also are not trading for Betts, Acuna, Olsen, Vlady, Rutschman, Judge, Freeman Alvarez, Harper, Machado or Soto. Of course, if you’re a true cubs fan, you believe all of these players putting on a cubs uniform is going to happen.
Bellinger will be a free agent at the top of the market. Reasonable is out the window. He will get a deal that 29 other teams find too expensive.
Of course not. Alonso hits 40+ HRs a season. In the Wrigley bandbox, he’d hit twice as many. His pop ups would land in those should-be-illegal baskets.
Wait and see. It’s not like Cohen can’t blow other offers off the table. At some point in his next contract he could likely become a DH. See how he does in his walk year, how the prospects are developing, and where the team is heading into 2025.
Alonso will be a DH kicking & screaming
I think Alonso should flee if given the chance. If Eppler is gone, then stay, but if he’s still there, then run. This season is almost a 500 million dollar season, with the build up and tear down. Good grief, run Alonso run..
traded to the pirates with Quintana and Marte for a boatload of prospects
Cohen had no problem giving scherzer and verlander 40 Mil a year as 2 pitchers nearing 40 at the time, I’m sure he wouldn’t have a problem giving Alfonso 30 Mil a year.
30M a year to Alonso is outrageous. Almost Chris Davis outrageous, 30M is 5M a year more than any comp could justify.
Trade McNeil or Lindor as you have prospects that are being blocked. Give the polar bear the fish to eat… sign him!
They already said they aren’t competing next year so why would you not trade him?
You need something to build on. If you have a AAAA team no one will fill the seats.
They never said they weren’t going to be competitive next year.
In fact they claimed they would be ‘competing’ next year, but so will the Tigers and Athletics. That mealymouthed word beloved of the Wilpon Mets means nothing.
At most it means ‘we’re not obviously tanking next year, and if we are we’ll lie about it.’
Cohen said the exact opposite. He said they will compete in 2024. He said they will sign FA. He only said he couldn’t promise he would go all in on free agents like he had in the past.
Can you show me where Cohen or Eppler said that they weren’t planning on competing next season, because in the articles on this site and linked to on this site Cohen said they were planning to contend next season.
So since you have information I seem to have missed, can you share links to it please?
Trade Pete (plus some salary relief) in the offseason to a team that’s on the cusp and needs a cheap fill in at first for a year, but have the return be younger highly thought of prospects and not the ones that are kinda knocking on the door. The reason I say this is a cheaper team is probably more willing and if their season doesn’t go as planned, then they would likely trade him to a contender at the deadline to save money and get some sort of prospect back to restock their system. But then that takes away the QO and leaves the Mets in a better position to try to sign him to a new contract after the 2024 season and not have to forfeit a draft pick. This is the way.
It’s abundantly clear that despite being two years younger than Freeman (6/162m) as of FA, Alonso’s not in Freddie’s zip code as a player. Nor does he rate to age as well as Matt Olson who got 8/168m plus a 20m team option at the end as of Matt’s age 28 season—so a decent comp would be slicing off the first 2 years and the last year of Olson’s deal. Nimmo’s an interesting comp, too, given their very similar OPS since the start of 2020, but Nimmo has more room to slide down the defensive spectrum and Nim’s peak seasons are better.
If LaBonzo would take something in the 20m-22m area for 5 years, or a year shorter at a higher AAV, say 4/100m, you’d be fine signing this 3-4 win 1Bman who should be DH’ing by age 30 or 31.
Do you go to 6/132m because of the salary increases for good players last offseason? Do you have to go to Nimmo money because it’s difficult not to on the New Yawk Mets?
Awkward. The last thing I’d want, though, is one more 30 year old bound to be in significant decline far too soon, and tied to the team for another 6-8 years. Alonso has many of the marks of a player unlikely to age well, including that he’s just not a very bright boy.
This sounds great, unfortunately this type of offer probably would not meet Pete’s expectations.
I hope they let him play it out and he goes berserk next year with like 40 pre all star game ding dongs so the Mets can trade him at the deadline and keep building that farm.
Love some Alonso but he isn’t the type of player who should be the staple of a rebuilding club.
@Ejemp2006 I think you’re right–Alonso doesn’t seem like the kind of fellow who’s likely to think a market-reasonable deal is, well, reasonable. Or to acknowledge that aging curves and defense that is already a tick or two below average don’t favor the 30 yo 1Bman in FA.
Still, he might want to remain in NY badly enough to take a reasonable offer.
Yes, 30 yo 1Bmen who aren’t great with the glove, who don’t excel at getting on base, and aren’t team leaders in any meaningful sense shouldn’t be at the center of a rebuilding team looking to get significantly younger in the next couple of years.
“Alonso’s not in Freddie’s zip code as a player”….I do like Pete, but I have to agree he’s not even in the same neighborhood as Freddy F. That being said, that’s a pretty high standard, because for me Freddy is one of MLB’s top ten players at any position. With his age, durability and player profile, I would offer Pete 4-5 yrs guaranteed(80-110 Million) with two possible option years. If He’s not interested trade him for players or prospects…
@mlb fan Well said. Freddie’s a veritable monster and I pity pitchers who have to face Betts-Freeman-Smith. That’s just unfair.
—I mentioned FF and Matt Olson as the two star (or star-ish, in Olson’s case) 1Bmen recently signed to longish deals and who were roughly in Pete’s age range, in this case bracketing him by 2 years on either side (as I’m sure you’re aware) thinking to frame his AAV and the number of years he might get. It’s interesting that Olson was racking up 4.7 WAR per 650 PA for his four seasons prior to the Braves dealing for him (and 5.2 WAR per 650 PA for 2019-2021), whereas Pete is currently at 3.7 WAR per 650, or 4.3 WAR per 650 if we do him the favor of going back to include 2019. Granted they’re very different types of 1Bmen, but it’s hard to argue Olson isn’t more valuable on the field than Pete, and if Olson is getting ‘just’ $21m AAV and that includes his age 28-29 seasons, it’s difficult to argue Pete should get more than that
4-5 years / $80m-110m sound eminently reasonable. (Given his durability the Mets should count on any vesting options to vest even if he’s not hitting all that close to his current incarnation.) I wonder what he’s looking for—has to be at least what Nimmo got, doesn’t it?
@Jackstraw….Very sound points. It’s hard to disagree.
Nimmo? much more than Nimmo. Probably not in years, but I’d bet Pete might turn down 7/160M. and that’s as high as I think they should go.
It’s not reasonable to the player. Pete isn’t going to settle for getting 20-25 mil for 4 years in his prime, just to be cut loose after that. That may seem fair to the club, but I think the player is going to want at least 7 years, and more than what Olsen got because the dollar isn’t worth as much in NY as it is in ATL because of taxes. Player contracts only go up.
I’ve seen some interesting comments on here devaluing alonso as a player, which is easier to do in a down year (where he’ll still easily eclipse 40-100, but not nearly as steady as last year). But this is a guy who leads all MLB in HR and RBI since his debut in 2019. And hes 14th in all MLB in RE24, which means he capitalizes on opportunities, its not just volume. 11th in OPS, 12th in WRC+. Hes a big impact bat, no two ways around it. And his defense really isnt bad to where he costs the team runs – this isnt Devers. No way hes on Freeman’s level, but hes upper tier and a premium run producer.
Only if they sign Ohtani.
Ain’t happenin’
Doesn’t seem likely
This one is actually fairly clear for the Mets: Alonso is still young, marketable and productive as a player and by all accounts a good citizen and teammate. Sign him to a reasonable extension(Maybe Nimmo money 5 yrs + 2 option years). If he wants to be a “Met for Life” that will be his chance and if he isn’t interested in a reasonable extension, you simply trade him for near-ready prospects…
mlb fan: Alonso is such a a good citizen he raises the flag at Citi Field every morning. He’s a den father to a troop of boy scouts. He even proudly wears a good citizenship badge on his uniform
When he’s not wiping food off the mouths of senior citizens during lunch time at the local nursing home, he’s reading to the blind. After Mets games you might spot him collecting garbage in the stands.
@avenger lol, just picturing Alonso chasing down old ladies to help them across the street only to get bonked with a purse for his trouble.
I’d love the Pirates to try to swing a deal if he’s available but I also am getting Crush Davis vibes too.
I respect the hell out of Alonso, but locking in a 1B only player at the beginning of a building phase is a bad idea.
If you can get a big return for him dump him! If not, try to extend him to his age 35 year or something if it’s reasonable. Just don’t overpay for the guy, I know he means a lot to Mets fans but at the end of the day he is just a 1st baseman. I don’t know how well his profile will age. At the end of the day power hitting first baseman are not the hardest thing to acquire and it’s not like he is Freddie Freeman or Paul Goldschmidt!
Offer Alonso what the Braves offered Olson as an extension. If he declines, trade him and then sign him in the off season. Better off rebuilding next year
LMAO at everyone thinking Cohen is planning a long term rebuild. The Mets told Scherzer that so he would waive his no trade clause. Cohen will be the highest bidder for Ohtani this offseason. He might not get him because Ohtani may take less money to play where he wants. But Cohen will NOT be outbid. And he will go after several other free agents as well. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
Interesting take. Cohen essentially bought a revamped farm already. He might do this go-for-broke methodology every year. (Win free agency, let the first half shake out, sell or buy at the deadline, depending on standings.)
Maybe he only sees players as assets.
We really don’t know what his ownership model will be, or if it’ll be sustainable long term. Heck, we should even admit we don’t know if all his money is monopoly play dough. It’s not like the Mets haven’t seen that before.
Maybe he’ll sign Alonso and trade him immediately, with the idea that the player and contract are assets. Who knows.
He has always stated that he wanted to build a sustainable winning franchise through a strong farm system, and free agent signings. Seeing as the farm was in tatters when he bought the franchise, free agent signings were the only real method to have a competitive team, while building the farm. In 2022, at the trade deadline, teams with reputable hitters on the market were asking for the four or five guys we wouldn’t trade out of our farm. That is why we ended up with Vogelbach and Ruf. Now with the bust of 2023, he has the farm stocked, and they will pursue free agents this offseason to fill the pitching void, and other areas of need.
@Jdt8312 That’s the story, but it’s very much in error. Cohen inherited / bought a Mets team with a 40 WAR core (only 3 MLB teams were better off), a very modest payroll, and at least two years from needing to roll over any position / anyone of note.
The Mets were extremely well off wrt SS, for example, certainly better fixed, deeper at SS than at any other position and for very little in salary, so what did Cohen do? He promptly wrecked the Mets greatest advantage by dealing real talent for Lindor., for the privilege of paying Lindor 1/3 of a billion dollars when the Mets payroll by 2023 was already going to rise substantially even without this self-inflicted wound.
In addition, he ran the team just the way the Wilpons used to, bouncing from year to year without a clear overall plan or giving any sense, really, that he knew within $100 million what the team’s payroll was going to be, one year to the next. And this chaotic approach had and has a real cost.
The Mets troubles are exclusively of their own making, but this is what happens when a team owner with no facility for doing so decides to play GM.
Your opinion is very flawed.
I really have to disagree with your assessment of Ahmed Rosario. Lindor is heads and tails above Rosario. There really is no comparison. I’m sorry. I love our home grown players. Looking forward to the guys coming up that are at Binghamton right now. So much so that I made the trip to Binghamton, and Somerset to see them play this week. But I encourage them to upgrade where they can, and Lindor is a huge upgrade to Rosario.
And your statement about Cohen running the team the way the Wilpons did is ludicrous. The Wilpons would spend to a point, and then get cheap when the best of the final pieces were available. Not I know you’re thinking Ruf and Vogelbach. But you have to ask yourself, as a guy who wants to see more homegrown talent stay in the organization, how many of last years top 4 were you willing to trade to get something better? Out of Alvarez, Baty, Vientos, and Mauricio, which 2 are gone? Because those are the player we were being asked for from EVERYONE. And it’s basically because that’s all the talent of worth that was close to the majors last year.
The Mets troubles are of their own making, I agree. But they predated Steve Cohen. And he’s stated his plan to fix it. Spend now to win now, while building the farm for sustainable competitiveness. The team never gelled this season. We all know. So they pivoted to using those assets, and dead money to build up the farm so that when the team is competitive, we don’t have to settle for a Vogelbach, or Ruf. And when we have vacancies on the roster, we can fill them with competent, and talented players.
Vogelbach played well last season after being acquired by Eppler. He had a 140 OPS+. They couldn’t have asked for much more.
This season he has been around league average or a bit below and the Mets needed more from the DH spot.
Vogelbach is a FA after this year so Eppler will have a chance to replace him in FA or trade.
The point was there were better hitters out there last year at the deadline than Vogelbach, and Ruf. And players that could have offered more than just a bat as well.
Who? Who were the prospects that were traded for them?
Baty,Alvarez, Vientos, and Mauricio were the prospects everyone was asking for, but the Mets didn’t want to trade any of those players because they were/are players that are going to be on the team in the near future, and are the only talent that is v close to being MLB ready. As memory serves, Juan Soto was available last season. Brian Reynolds was rumored to be on the market as well. Josh Bell, Trey Mancini, Benintendi, and Peralta were all available, and traded.
Acuna and Gilbert are both in AA. They could be in the majors by the end of 2024.
Juan Soto was not available at any point after being traded to the Padres.
The Pirates were vehement about the fact that Reynolds was not available in trade and proved that by signing him to an extension.
Trey Mancini is out of baseball. You are trying to say he was better than the 140 OPS+ Vogelbach put up for the Mets after they traded for him? Benintendi put up a decent 110 OPS+ after being traded to the Yankees. Not close to Vogelbach. Did any of those guys put up a higher OPS+ than Vogelbach did for the Mets last season after the trade?
OPS+ is not the be all, and end all of a players worth. Vogelbach is a one dimensional player, and one dimensional hitter. Juan Soto was available from the Nationals. Brian Reynolds signed his extension this April, so that doesn’t prove anything. Trey Mancini won a ring with the Astros, and was a contributing member of that club. Every player I mentioned is a better overall player than Vogelbach And with the exception of Reynolds, all of them went further in the playoffs, and contributed to the success of their teams. Vogelbach had 7 AB’s in the post, and had one RBI, and a .000 BA. Even Mancini did better than that.
Cohen’s long play is a NYC casino license. What better way to gain political brownie points than to bring the Mets a championship.
Steve Cohen is a smart guy. I find it difficult to believe a smart guy would go through 2023 Mets experience without learning anything. I am sure the Mets will still be active in free agency, but nowhere near last season’s splurge.
Gotta keep Alonso bc where else is the power coming from?
Yup. There’s very little power in this lineup without Alonso. And they’ll still need a DH or two. So without Alonso, they’ll be in bad shape in terms of power
Trade him to the Reds for some of their cool prospects ! Phillips, Marte, Arroyo…
They have keep someone who can sell Mets merchandise.
Trade him to the Guardians for shane Bieber, Bibee and Oscar Gonzalez
Trade him to Boston for Bryan Bello and Tristan Casas
eeeew. No thanks. Casas is Alonso without the power.
Sox fan here. No ty!
I would offer 5 years with 2 option years (at declining value). Might take too much of an AAV but hey, you asked…..
Alonso is an enormous clown.
Why
Neon is big on projecting his flaws onto others. Ignore the fool.
Sounds like you have a personal problem. See a doc…
I am a doc. You’re the one with the problem
Hall of Fame Caliber. You Extend this guy thru his Career.
This guy could be another David Wright type guy. Full career on 1 team.
Wright was awesome and beloved by the Mets, but he barely played in five of his final seven seasons (the ones when he was paid the most).
Ok. That’s has nothing to do with my comment.
Everyone stop drooling. Pete is gonna get an extension.
I just can’t stand him Super foul mouth and a massive ego.
Biggest no brainer. Extend him. There are simply no 1B on the market for the foreseeable future that are near as good. 11.1 WAR and 138 OPS+ from 2021 through today. Irreplaceable. He is going into his age 29 season in 2024. Lock him up through his age 35 or 36 season.
Never hit fewer than 37 HR’s in a full season and hasn’t had fewer than 67 extra base hits and isn’t a total strikeout machine when not hitting Homers like many power hitters. The Mets should certainly consider an extension. Doesn’t have to be a decade+ long commitment but maybe a 6-8 year deal wouldn’t be bad. Cover his prime years while not overpaying for his declining years
@Rsox Why do people continue to think a player’s prime years include his 30s? Prime in baseball, on average, is 26-27, depending on how you slice this or that. Every study purporting to show differently is quickly shown to have fatal flaws
Peak age around 27 is why not one team in the majors has pitchers or hitters who average even as much as 31 years of age.
Bill James established this more than 40 years ago. It’s not up for debate.
He is going to command $25 a year and will want the length of contract in the 8 year range. He brings more than just his numbers to the Mets. He is the face of the team and he is plays every single day. He is one of the handful of players you know an opposing team fears. His home run numbers are historic so far in his career. He could be in the range of $200/8 and I don’t think that is a huge financial scar that will hang over this team. $25 mil for a 40-50 hr and 120 rbi player each year batting fourth with decent defensive skills that seem to improve each year. Sign me up!
@findingnimmo Yes, paying Alonso far more than Freddie Freeman or Matt Olson or Paul Goldschmidt—that makes sense.
Inflation bud. It does make sense.
I’d go 25M AAV for 6 years tops. Not one year or one penny more.
That’s fair too. But I do think for Mets to keep him he is a $25 a year player factoring in others “similar to him” and inflation, and what he means to ny and the Mets. Lots of factors beyond war and other stats.
I like Pete and he is a good homerun hitter, the problem is he has two big flaws, One he is super streaky, secondly you know what you are getting with him, a low batting average, high homerun hitter that could change a game in one swing, If you are willing to overlook those two faults, the real issue arises does he fit on the Mets as team as a whole. If they continue down the path they are on, Pete will not fit in well unless they decide to find more on base hitters than homerun. Personally, I do think they should trade him. Alvarez fits the same bill as Pete without expecting him to carry the team. Alv (I will shorten) is still just a young hitter and hits the homerun ball well enough for him to take over Pete’s role. If you have too many homerun hitters that are streaky and don’t really hit for average, it ends up hurting the team in the end.
Alonso for Torres straight up
Ha! Eppler is a horrible GM but he’s not that dumb.
Surprised to see 30% think trading Alonso is good. He is the Mets best bat.
@findingnimmo Pete, is that you? Seriously, FF is in a completely different category. Comparing Pete to FF is like comparing a McMansion in Akron to Windsor Castle
They should trade him to the Giants for Darin Ruf.
First, the Mets need to assess if Pete wants to stay a Met.
Second, I think k the Mets need to be open to both options.
I’d listen to offers in the off-season when his value will be the highest. If Mets get an offer of 3 Top 100 prospects, I think they have to pull th trigger.
If the value isn’t there, lock him up.
I think they should throw it again
… and again, and again
“throw it again!” what a tool…
Strawb doesn’t like people showing him he is wrong. Goodbye little boy.
Holy irony
Some stipulated that if the prospects were not something to bark at, they should try to resign Pete if he wanted to stay. I think he did say he liked NY though if Pete can bring in some potential pitching prospects it would be in the Mets best interest to pull the trigger. They have some decent prospects but nothing in the pitching department.
My only question for anyone saying trade him, is who out there is as good that would be available in trade of FA?
And please no platitudes, just names and a plan to acquire that player.
Here is how 1B have performed over the last 3 years.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=bat&#…
stathead.com/baseball/player-batting-season-finder…
Pick one of those top 5 or 6 guys and then tell us how the Mets could go about getting that player while not damaging their farm system or MLB team.
No answer I will take that as confirmation the Mets should extend him, not trade him.
But what does Steve Cohen plan to do about the players on the Mets who have DN?
Not manipulating Pete Alonso’s service time when he first came up looking like a colossal misstep now.
Yeah, crazy thought to do everything you can to get deGrom, Thor, Matz and possibly Wheels into the playoffs before three of them walked in FA… :/
They didn’t make it in 2019 even with putting Pete Alonso on the roster to start the season.
Makes little sense to trade him when his BABIP is historically bad. Wait for him to have just a slightly better year next year, and trade him to a team with a desparate owner who is willing to overpay
Not going to get more for him when he has 40% (give or take) as much club control remaining and the acquiring team doesn’t get to QO him.
I say trade him. He hits a ton of homers but his average isn’t great
Trade him to a real franchise.
The Mets fan base would absolutely lose it if they either trade or let Alonso walk eventually.
Whoever signs him won’t be looking at his .255 average. They’ll be looking at plugging in a reliable 40+hr,100rbi+ and good character guy in the #4 hole. And there are a whole lot worse options than that. He’s gonna get paid. And it only takes one team.. Believe me, players like this are crack to gm’s.
Lindor & Marte should be traded before any thoughts of home grown Alonso. The untouchables are: Nimrod, McNeil, Alvarez, Baty & Alonso. Pitching staff is weak and should be upgraded.
The idea that you can have a poll with basically a buy/sell option, with no numbers, is about as meaningless as you can get.
Trade him for Volpe? Absolutely.
Singed him for $120M/6? Absolutely.
Both pretty unlikely, obviously. But without the context, any opinion is fairly meaningless.
Nailed it.
Run Pete. Run!