(670 The Score) As they look to add a big bat this offseason, the Cubs plan to inquire about the availability of Mets first baseman Pete Alonso on the trade market, sources said.
Alonso, 28, is entering the final year of his contract in 2024 and is coming off a big 46-homer, 118-RBI campaign in his just-completed season. The Cubs kicked the tires on Alonso ahead of this past trade deadline on Aug. 1, but a deal was never close to fruition.
Soon enough, the Cubs intend to revisit the conversation, and perhaps the dynamics in play will be more advantageous to them this time. In his end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer noted the strength of his team’s farm system and the healthy condition of the organization’s revenue streams. Those two factors could potentially help the Cubs acquire Alonso in a trade and sign him to an extension, as a one-year rental wouldn’t seem to make as much sense.
"Talking about organizational health, Theo (Epstein) once said you get to a place when you don't have prospects or available dollars, you are stuck,” Hoyer said. “I think we are in a place right now where our books (payroll commitments) are clean long-term. I think the organization's health is really strong. We will sit down in the next few weeks and see where we are financially. We have not done that yet. Again, the aggressiveness they (the business operation) have shown financially has created some real momentum.”
In New York, the Mets are undergoing change, having hired former Brewers top executive David Stearns as their new president of baseball operations before manager Buck Showalter recently announced he won’t return for the 2024 season. While Stearns noted at his introductory press conference that he expects Alonso to be the Mets' starting first baseman on Opening Day in 2024, it’s clear the sides haven’t discussed a long-term contract lately.
With star first baseman/center fielder Cody Bellinger’s future uncertain as his free agency looms, getting a middle-of-the-order bat is a high priority for the Cubs. On Tuesday, Hoyer declined to delve into specifics about how aggressive the Cubs will be spending money this offseason, but he did paint an optimistic outlook.
“Tom (Ricketts) and Crane (Kenney) were really aggressive with the payroll this year,” Hoyer said Tuesday in reference to the organization’s chairman and president of business operations. “We pushed the envelope to build the team. They felt we could compete. We did that. We have momentum we want to capture, and that's what I will say about it.”
After faltering down the stretch to miss the playoffs and finish 83-79, the Cubs will use October to map out potential offseason moves.
“We will spend a lot of time over the next month getting ready for the GM Meetings,” Hoyer said. “We need to look at players and the buy and sell demands (of other teams). We need to know what surpluses other teams have. Part of that is the really fun part of the job, but after one thing goes wrong, some of those supposed situations are no longer useful. As an example, Cody was our priority in the offseason last year. We thought he would be non-tendered by the Dodgers. That was one where all that planning this time of the year really paid off. Sometimes those offseason plans go exactly as you hope, and sometimes the player re-signs with his current team or it just blows up.”
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.