NEWSLETTER
Bruce Levine joined Matt Spiegel on 670 The Score tonight (7:30 mark if you’re looking for it), and … boy did he have a lot to say. Specifically, Levine discussed the Cubs interest in trading for Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (and ultimately pairing him alongside the free agent signing of “someone like” Cody Bellinger). Here are the key quotes, my reaction, and some important context to keep in mind. As Levine, himself, points out, it’s only October 2.
Let’s start with the Alonso-specific stuff:
The people I talk to, and I talk to a lot of scouts, as you know … and the situation is, the mumbling out there is that the Cubs are going to do everything they can for Pete Alonso from the Mets. Alonso is in the last year of a contract, obviously 46 home runs, 100 RBI, you know, a guy that pounds the ball. Sure he strikes out, but who doesn’t these days. And he’s one year away from being a free agent, much like Bellinger was. And the only difference, Matt, is that you’re going to have to trade something really good for him, even though there’s only one year left.
In case you forgot, the Cubs were reportedly among the teams courting the Mets on a Pete Alonso trade at the 2023 MLB Trade Deadline, and we’ve generally expected these conversations to pick back up (with the Cubs or someone else) ever since. After all, the Mets are said to be prioritizing 2025 and beyond over next season, which obviously leaves Alonso, who’s under contract for just one more year, in an awkward spot.
Of course, the Mets could always extend Alonso, who is just 28-years-old, but he’s reportedly seeking a 10-year extension, which the Mets are not particularly interested in accomodating. Levine confirmed as much tonight: “The Mets and (Pete Alonso) haven’t come to a meeting of the minds on a long-term deal.”
However, who knows how David Stearns’ takeover changes that conversation.
Indeed, just tonight, Stearns took to the media to proclaim that he fully expects Pete Alonso to be the Mets starting first baseman on Opening Day and that he’s “looking forward to getting to know him” because he hopes “he is a Met for a long time.”
Of course, you’d hardly expect him to say anything else. The Mets have already lost plenty of leverage when they started shopping him at the deadline. And there’s also this fresh reporting that says Alonso wasn’t happy to hear of Buck Showalter’s dismissal.
That’s more than enough to make this feel quite real.
In terms of the impact Alonso could make in Chicago, we’ll have to get in the weeds another time. But the short version? WAAAAAANT.
Pete Alonso would pretty much be a perfect target for the 2024 Chicago Cubs, who BADLY need power and have a clear opening at first base (Matt Mervis didn’t claim the job when he had the chance, Trey Mancini was DFA’d, Cody Bellinger is a free agent, and Jeimer Candelario is a free agent).
And at just 28-years-old, Alonso is a good extension candidate (his current requests notwithstanding), who lines up well with the rest of the core/long-term Cubs players. Again, this is a career 133 wRC+ hitter who is literally leading all of MLB in home runs since 2019 (192). That’s 15(!) more than second-place Matt Olson (177) and 18 more than Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber (174, t-3rd).
Again, we can dig way deeper another time, but in short, you want Pete Alonso on your team. And although he will be pricey to acquire — make no mistake about that — he’s not going to cost one of the Cubs top 1-3 prospects. At the end of the day, he has just one, relatively pricey (maybe like $18-$20M in arbitration) year of control remaining. And he’s a first baseman. This is doable for a Cubs team with a (near-)consensus top-5 farm system in baseball.
Anyway, Levine continued on, sparking an even greater fire with the possibility of pairing an Alonso trade with the re-signing of free-agent Cody Bellinger.
“Alonso is that middle of the order type hitter to go along with Bellinger. We’re stretching it in this conversation on October 2, thinking that they’re going to get both of them, but that would be their plan going into the offseason, a slugger like Alonso a great piece like Bellinger. I don’t think their plan is to go backwards.”
I couldn’t tell for sure how much work Levine wants the word “like” to do in that bolded section. As in, maybe he meant someone like Bellinger, but not necessarily/specifically him. And it certainly didn’t come across quite as report-y as his comments on Alonso. But he said what he said and I thought you’d want to see it and decide for yourself. At a minimum, this is a guy who is getting the sense that the Cubs are going to be active in a big way this offseason (as they should be).
Levine did also have this one specific on Bellinger’s offseason plans: “…I believe Scott Boras … will hold (Cody) Bellinger off until probably late January or early February to get the optimum amount for him.”
That’s a long time to wait relative to the pace of last offseason, but that is something Boras tends to do. We’ll just pocked that for now, and go back to the Cubs.
The idea of getting both Bellinger *and* Alonso is both tantalizing and a little difficult to figure out. If Alonso comes to play first base every day, then Bellinger will have to be in center field every day. And that would leave just two spots for Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Alexander Canario.
But whatever. I’m not going to worry about that right now. These things have a way of working themselves out on the field (…or by creating superfluous assets that could be used in other ways). At the end of the day, the Cubs need as many star players — and power bats — as they can get. And, hey, the DH exists. Do it! Fun!
