BT & Sal wonder who the Mets would choose if they had to pick one: Pete Alonso or Willy Adames?
Seems like any and every Mets fan would love to have Juan Soto AND Pete Alonso, given Steve Cohen's checkbook, but the Mets do have some needs elsewhere too – and after Freddy in Newton called in to BT & Sal to advocate for breaking the bank, the guys had to try to make an interesting decision.
If you can only get one infielder, do you try to re-sign Alonso, or sign Willy Adames to play third – as he is reportedly open to the position change – and move Mark Vientos to first base?
"I don't think it's unrealistic to want the Mets to have or expect the Mets to have Soto and Alonso, but I do think Alonso is gonna get more than what they're willing to pay," Sal said, "but in that case, the Mets need to not only bring in Soto, they also need to replace Alonso, so that's why I say Adames."
Adames has reportedly gotten a seven-year, $160 million offer from the Mets, and the Dodgers are also among other teams that have checked in, while various insiders have pegged Alonso at five or six years for anywhere from $125 to $160 million – with our former insider, Jon Heyman, pegging Pete at $152/6 and Adames at $180/7.
"If you're telling me that Adames goes to San Francisco and the Mets don't want to pay whatever he gets from the Giants, then I do think the Mets need to extend a little bit more for Alonso," Sal said. "All those numbers out there aren't all gonna be accurate, but those are educated guesses by people in the game, so it should be ballpark. Maybe they go $20 to $50 million higher, but still, roughly looking at that, that number for Alonso is still cheap."
"What you can calculate in these estimations is what will the team do when they become desperate when another target goes elsewhere?" BT asked. "Then, the 152 very well might become 190 if you just got to spend money because you haven't done anything yet."
Sal thinks enough teams will be desperate for power to the point where Alonso might get overpaid, so the Mets need to build that into the calculus as well.
"Here's how I would look at it: if we're gonna overpay, why not overpay for Willy Adames, who I think is a far better baseball player than Pete Alonso," Sal said. "You have him play third base, you get great production from him, and he's got those intangibles, so you move Vientos to first."
"I think that we've already seen what the Mets' No. 1 plan is, because their connection so early to Adames tells you that they're not bringing back Pete unless they have to," BT replied, "and even then, they might pivot."
Sal thinks it's just letting Alonso look at free agency, as he reportedly turned down a seven-year, $158 million deal – one less year than the deal Heyman pegs, and about $3 million per year less AAV also.
"Is he even getting that? Alonso would be lucky, at least in my mind to get the same…e's not getting that deal from the Mets. I would be shocked if the Mets gave him a better deal than that," Sal said, and when BT added 'unless they whiff on Soto and get desperate,' Sal finished the thought: "That might be the wrong thing."
Then, of course, there's the thought Eddie in Brooklyn brought up that Scott Boras might want Soto to sign first because he'll drive up everyone's price…and yeah, it's gonna be a fun winter around here.
