Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Sept 1, 2023 10:59:01 GMT -5
Fangraphs had a piece on a theoretical Alonso trade (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/pondering-a-possible-pete-alonso-trade/) and it made me interested in taking at least a surface-level glance at whether or not he'd be a fit with the Sox if the price was right.
Obviously Triston Casas is going to be around for a while but since Alonso hits righty I think there's plenty of room to configure a platoon at first with the other DHing.
A few bullet points from the article:
I personally think he'd be a good fit provided one specific thing, and that would be Yoshida's inclusion in the deal. I don't think you can commit to what will effectively be a full time DH between him and Casas, whoever isn't starting at first, because I think Masa will need to spend considerable time at DH next year to mitigate the defensive concerns. But given those concerns and the contract, would that complicate the package too much for the Mets? I would certainly entertain something like Yoshida + Brandon Walter, but I would also certainly understand why they wouldn't. Maybe there's a third team involved? Like I said, I'm keeping this pretty surface level, but I don't think there's a super clean fit in terms of a trade package. The one galaxy brain piece of this I'll speculate at is maybe the Mets view Yoshida as having some added value because they're going to aggressively pursue Yamamoto this winter, and having Yoshida + Senga could be a helpful point of negotiation.
The TLDR version of this is that I'd like this given a set of very specific circumstances (should add that his contract demands matter a lot here, obviously), but it's not something I'm going to pound the table for. I'd hope they'd at least gauge the Mets' interest in Yoshida and if there's nothing there, there will be plenty of other avenues to improve the team.
Obviously Triston Casas is going to be around for a while but since Alonso hits righty I think there's plenty of room to configure a platoon at first with the other DHing.
A few bullet points from the article:
- ZiPS is not super kind - >3 WAR the next 2 years, in the mid-2's in years 3/4, and then <2 in years 5-7. Projecting him for 17 homers in nearly 400 AB's does seem pretty light though, even if he'll be in his mid-30's.
- Their projected contract for him was 6/$130 million, though I'd imagine he'll be looking at Matt Olson's deal (8/168) as a comparable, or maybe something shorter with a higher AAV in the ballpark of 6/150. That's just pure speculation on my end, though.
- They also project the return to be a 50 FV prospect, so in the Yorke/Rafaela/maybe Perales tier.
I personally think he'd be a good fit provided one specific thing, and that would be Yoshida's inclusion in the deal. I don't think you can commit to what will effectively be a full time DH between him and Casas, whoever isn't starting at first, because I think Masa will need to spend considerable time at DH next year to mitigate the defensive concerns. But given those concerns and the contract, would that complicate the package too much for the Mets? I would certainly entertain something like Yoshida + Brandon Walter, but I would also certainly understand why they wouldn't. Maybe there's a third team involved? Like I said, I'm keeping this pretty surface level, but I don't think there's a super clean fit in terms of a trade package. The one galaxy brain piece of this I'll speculate at is maybe the Mets view Yoshida as having some added value because they're going to aggressively pursue Yamamoto this winter, and having Yoshida + Senga could be a helpful point of negotiation.
The TLDR version of this is that I'd like this given a set of very specific circumstances (should add that his contract demands matter a lot here, obviously), but it's not something I'm going to pound the table for. I'd hope they'd at least gauge the Mets' interest in Yoshida and if there's nothing there, there will be plenty of other avenues to improve the team.