This costly Yankees-Pete Alonso trade package could swipe slugger from across town

The solution to the Yankees' first base scuffles, for the 2025 season, likely involves a low-cost option from down on the farm after the team parts ways with Anthony Rizzo.

For 2024, though? Cost be damned; they just want to insure, as best they can, against a second-half regression.

The Yankees' best-case scenario would involve Rizzo finding his footing defensively and uncovering a bit of offense to match. Nobody really wants the chemistry hit involved with swapping out half the starting infield in Rizzo and Gleyber Torres, but ... a liability's a liability. The Yankees have no intention of rolling into October weakly. Maybe they could get an infusion of burly power from an enemy's source?

The Mets, per ESPN's MLB insider Jeff Passan, have now seen the "sell" scale tip fully towards the "DO IT NOW" direction. They have every intention of shopping Alonso: "Pete Alonso would be the preeminent slugger available -- and considering he makes $20.5 million and the Mets would get only a fourth-round draft pick in draft compensation for letting him sign elsewhere in free agency because of their exorbitant payroll, multiple general managers said they expect new president of baseball operations David Stearns to trade the All-Star first baseman."

Consider former GM Jim Bowden among those who agrees with Passan (though he expects a Mets-Alonso reunion to be a strong possibility when the season ends). He listed the Yankees among five teams that could make a summer play for the man who certainly does fit Brian Cashman and the Yankee Way's 2000-2010 mold for adding sluggers at the position (Jason Giambi, meet this meathead).

Yankees Trade Package for Mets' Pete Alonso

Alonso will definitely be a rental for the Yankees, a team with a stated goal to shed payroll next offseason (and, hopefully, absorb $25 million extra on Juan Soto's record-setting current contract). He'll probably also be a rental for any other team that lands him. Still, the Yankees will have to be persuasive. Maybe, given the escalating cost of winning a bidding war for the strongest power hitter available, they should also try to plunder some pitching?

No, not Luis Severino, Buster Olney. Some relief pitching/starting depth.

How about the Mets send Alonso -- midway through a regressive year with an OPS under .800, by the way, though he always heats up -- and Sean Manaea (solid as a starter, always better in the 'pen) in exchange for slugging outfielder Everson Pereira, top-10 pitching prospect Brock Selvidge, teenaged outfielder (and MLB Pipeline's No. 14 prospect) Francisco Vilorio, and MLB-ready reliever Danny Watson? You can't accuse us of cheaping out there. The ball will firmly be in the Mets' court, with many of their needs met across multiple timelines (especially if they intend to bring Alonso back after all).

Would we do it? No. But this should get things done in the real world, and the Manaea infusion helps justify the cost.