Prominent MLB Personality Says a Trade For This Slugger Makes M's a World Series Contender
According to one prominent baseball podcaster, the Seattle Mariners are a World Series contender if they acquire New York Mets' first baseman Pete Alonso in a trade.
Jake of the Talkin' Baseball podcast said so this week. You can hear his comments below, which center around the need for the M's to upgrade their offense in support of their great pitching staff.
Pete Alonso makes the Mariners a World Series contender pic.twitter.com/GaxGddSGQH
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 13, 2024
The M's do undoubtedly need offensive help. Despite being 42-31 on the season and 7.5 games up in the American League West, they are still ranked near the bottom in several key offensive categories.
Alonso is a name that the M's have been linked to by others in the industry, but his potential acquisition comes with several surrounding conversations.
The cost
The 28-year-old slugger is a free agent at the end of this season, meaning that the M's would only need to pay approximately $10 million for him for the rest of the season. For a front office that generally doesn't like spending money, that's a better price than say, Luis Robert Jr. and his potential $60+ million remaining.
Furthermore, because he's a rental player, the M's may not need to give up a ton in prospect capital. It will hurt no matter what, but it may not be the upper-eschelon of your system. The price point, both financially and prospect wise, might fit the M's well.
The lineup issues
Alonso plays first base and can also play designated hitter. And while that seems fine on the surface, it runs in stark contrast to how the rest of the M's lineup is set up. Ty France is implanted at first base. Is the team ready to put him on the bench? Put him at DH? Then what happens to Mitch Garver? Or Mitch Haniger? Those two have also played DH this season. Acquiring Alonso certainly gives the M's some positional redundancy that they'd have to account for. Could they trade France to New York in a deal to make this issue go away, but then what happens to the clubhouse culture that France has helped build.
Alonso is hitting .229 this season with 14 homers and 32 RBI. He's only carrying a .309 on-base percentage so the M's will have to figure out if that's even worth the points raised above. A three-time All-Star, Alonso has hit at least 37 homers in each of his four full seasons in the big leagues.
He also had 16 in the COVID 2020 season.
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