Sal is convinced that the Mets will not land Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto this winter, but he does see Yoshinobu Yamamoto coming to Queens to join Kodai Senga atop the rotation.
But what if the Mets miss on Yamamoto, and none of those big three names winds up in New York?
BT's next course of action would be to learn even further into rebuild mode, and that would mean trading their homegrown star, who is approaching free agency himself.
"If the Mets whiff on everybody…if I'm you, I pivot to, I'm trading Alonso and I am accelerating my rebuild," BT said. "And by the time my pitching is legitimately stabilized, the rest of the roster is ready to win and compete with the Braves."
Sal couldn't stomach that path, and doesn't co-sign a team with the financial might of the Mets going into that level of a rebuild. So, they better wind up with Yamamoto.
"This is it. They need Yamamoto," Sal said. "Without him, they can't get on that right path to immediate success or in the years moving forward."
