The Mets Should Trade Pete Alonso Right Now

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This is not a blog I ever expected to write two years ago. I thought the Mets were on their way to a long run of greatness where winning 101 games would be the beginning of something special instead of being a weird fluke season. Alonso is one of very few homegrown Met sluggers. As of this very moment, he's only 45 home runs away from passing Darryl Strawberry to be the Mets all-time home run leader.

None of that matters. Yes, the Mets just beat the Phillies in London today but let's accept reality. The Mets stand at 28-36. It's easy to look at the Wild Card standings and see they are only 3.5 games back. But it's also easy to see they need to climb over 7 teams to get that last spot. This is a team on pace to go 71-91. We all need to stop fooling ourselves. 

The Mets season is lost and they need to trade Pete Alonso. The sooner, the better.

Offense is so down in baseball this year. The Dodgers lead the NL in OBP(.335) and slugging(.434) this year but those are not impressive numbers at all. The Mariners lead the AL West by five games and have a team OBP of .299. The market for Pete Alonso would be like Sydney Sweeney walking into the gambling cave. There would be a ton of interest. Meek Phill is the Mariners in this analogy.

The other element is Alonso is in a walk year. He's owed about $12 million dollars for the rest of the year. Because there is not obligation beyond this year, even small market teams could make this work. It also allows the Mets to maybe re-sign him in the off-season. His agent is Scott Boras. He's going to free agency even if the Mets hold onto him. 

What teams make the most sense? The Brewers, Padres, Mariners, Guardians and Twins would all make perfect sense. You'd absolutely have a bidding war. The Mets also have a roster full of guys in walk years that you could trade like J.D. Martinez, Luis Severino, Harrison Bader and Sean Manaea (he does have a player option for next year which will hurt his value a little).

All of this sucks. It's another year where the Mets spend July selling everyone and then spend September trying to avoid 90 losses in front of an empty Citi Field. You only get 80 years on this planet. You can't just waste these seasons. The Orioles were terrible for four years but it was working towards something. I have no idea what the Mets plan is. They have the biggest payroll in baseball this season and last but are 103-123 over that time.

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Every day you wait to make a move, Pete Alonso's value goes down. More and more teams will also wave the white flag and create more options for teams to trade for. Don't get me wrong. They could trade Alonso on July 31st and get a haul. But it would be bigger if they did it on June 12th.

I know this is tough for some Mets fans. I hope I'm wrong about all of this. I'd love Freezing Cold Takes to retweet this blog after the Mets go on a run and get into the playoffs. But I also know the difference between a fairy tale and reality. The Mets bullpen is a disaster and the backend of this lineup is relying on Jose Iglesias and Luis Torrens.

The future means more the present.