The New York Yankees’ worst nightmare has come true. General manager Brian Cashman was unable to retain outfielder Juan Soto. Unfortunately for the Bombers, Soto decided to go across town and sign with the New York Mets. Should they give the Mets a taste of their own medicine by signing first baseman Pete Alonso?
First base was a black hole for the Yankees in 2024. A group of five players led by Anthony Rizzo combined to produce -1.1 WAR, according to FanGraphs. Only three teams received worse production from that area of the diamond.
Meanwhile, Alonso has been MLB’s fourth-best first baseman since his 2019 National League Rookie of the Year campaign. He’s slugged 226 home runs during that time, second only to Aaron Judge (232 homers). While pairing Judge and Soto together for the foreseeable future was nice to think about, an Alonso-Judge pairing wouldn’t be bad, either.
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Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer is predicting the Yankees will respond to whiffing on Soto by landing the Mets’ homegrown slugger.
“The Yankees swiping Pete Alonso from the Mets wouldn’t quite be an equal and opposite reaction to the latter’s record-shattering 15-year, $765 million deal with Juan Soto. Alonso is a darn good hitter, but his historical comps don’t include Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle,” Rymer wrote. “But if nothing else, signing Alonso would go a long way toward making up for the power the Yankees have lost with Soto having departed the Bronx for Queens.”
As Rymer said, landing Alonso isn’t the same as retaining Soto. But as the Yankees get used to a world without the 26-year-old slugger, Alonso is a good place to start. Spotrac projects he’ll land a six-year, $174 million contract this winter.
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