Is the Polar Bear coming to Boston?
Welcome back to Smash Or Pass, our offseason series in which we examine various free agents and trade targets to determine whether they make sense for the Red Sox. Next up, a polar bear.
Pete Alonso is a charming baseball player. He hits homers, his nickname is the polar bear and he’s cool with all of it. In general, it’s very much the the sort of thing you want, though you wish he could cut down on the strikeouts. You know it’s a losing proposition, though, so you let it go. The real question is: Smash or Pass?
The Smash Case:
For whatever he does poorly, Pete Alonso does one thing very well: He hits the ball over the wall. Everything else aside, that’s important. If you get buckets, you will play, so Alonso plays, and homers, and strikes out a lot, but whatever. It’s the homers, stupid. Not just in the Home Run Derby (two-time champ) either. And look at that, he’s right-handed! The Red Sox, famously, are not right-handed, like at all.
Oh my God. Pete Alonso just hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the ninth inning off Devin Williams.
Pete Alonso has his Mets moment. Wow. Just wow. pic.twitter.com/WfVyxktAL4
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) October 4, 2024
The Pass Case:
A first baseman, and not a great one, Alonso would only exacerbate a logjam at the corners and DH spot, thereby necessitating Rafael Devers plays third, everything else being the same. This is not ideal, because Alonso, as good as he is, is the worst hitter between himself, Devers and Triston Casas. And as we know from the Juan Soto deal, anything in the Mets’s orbit is likely to get sucked in eventually. Simmons cooked with this, I can’t lie:
@billsimmonspod Juan Soto, YOU are a New York Met. #mlb #baseball #juansoto #mets #newyorkmets #BSPodcast
The Verdict: Pass, But Good Luck Out There, Pal
There’s too much hitting talent at the corners to jam them up any further, at least for the likes of Alonso, who’s ultimately a one-trick pony (complimentary). It’s not that complicated. Even Simmons gets it.