Headed into the offseason, the New York Yankees were widely expected to be involved in the market for a new first baseman.
Coming off a disaster of a season from the position in which the Yankees ranked dead last in all of baseball in terms of OPS, something had to change at first.
Once the team lost Juan Soto to the rival New York Mets, wild theories emerged of where the Bronx Bombers could spend the money saved on Soto instead on different top of the market free agents. One of the popular names which emerged would have been a sort of revenge story as Yankees fans clamored for New York to make a crosstown heist of their own with Mets slugger Pete Alonso.
We now know the Yankees never seriously pursued or were even interested in making a real offer to Alonso, but those who questioned that logic should have a very clear answer now as to why Brian Cashman stayed away from the home run specialist.
In the result many expected, Alonso wound up remaining in Queens with news breaking Wednesday night that he had agreed to terms on a new deal with the Mets.
The contract, which officially totaled $54 million over two years, is effectively a one-year deal with $30 million given the likely to be declined $24 million player option for 2026.
In other words, that’s nearly two and a half times the one-year deal the Yankees wound up plucking St. Louis Cardinals legend Paul Goldschmidt, who the team acquired for $12.5 million.
Granted, Goldschmidt is coming off a tough year offensive side of the ball, but if New York believes he can have a resurgence upon joining a competing team at the twilight of his career, the argument could even be made that Goldschmidt’s 2024 season – which is by far the worst offensively of his career – was close to on par with Alonso.
Of course, Alonso hits significantly more home runs, but Goldschmidt is still a better fielder and had a better batting average than Alonso even in the down year.
If Goldschmidt can prove his .716 OPS was more of an outlier than a true reflection of the kind of player he is at this stage in his career and still provide around 25 home runs, the seven-time All-Star will absolutely be a better value than his counterpart for the Mets.
It was not one or the other for the Yankees in terms of weighing a Goldschmidt pursuit versus Alonso, but the value they get out of a $12.5 million deal for the veteran against a whopping $30 million for the masher is night and day.
