Getty Pete Alonso
For the Astros, general manager Dana Brown has been pretty clear all along.
Despite early struggles and a raft of devastating pitching injuries that have threatened to send the 2024 season permanently adrift, the front office is not preparing to wave any white flags and start selling off players. That’s not how team owner Jim Crane has operated to date, and there’s no sign he will start now.
There are reasons to be hopeful. The Astros bottomed out at 12-24 on May 8, but have bounced back since, going 16-11 despite the injuries in the rotation. The Mariners are atop the A.L. West, but they have hardly been gangbusters, at seven games over .500.
Houston is only seven games away from catching them, and with the Astros’ string of seven straight years in the MLB postseason, this is a team that knows how to navigate rocky stretches.
Still, the Astros are seven games below .500 and announced this week that starters Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy would be out for the rest of the season with elbow surgery. Not great for a team that has the fifth-worst ERA in all of baseball, at 4.71.
The Astros will be in the market for pitching. But don’t rule out a gutsy gamble on a slugger, too. According to New York Post insider Jon Heyman, speaking on a Bleacher Report live stream, the Astros are one of the contenders to land Mets slugger Pete Alonso, at least as a short-term rental.
Pete Alonso Trade ‘Makes Sense’ in Houston
Alonso, of course, is a 29-year-old three-time All-Star in the meat of his career. He has been putting up his usual power numbers, though his production has been slowed by the disastrous start the Mets have had in general this season.
Alonso has 14 homers and 31 RBI, with a slash line of .238/.315/.477. But the Mets could be headed toward a fire sale, and Alonso is a pending free agent.
“Alonso is probably the biggest name out there,” Heyman said of the trade market. “He is always healthy. He is very reliable. He has improved at first—he might be average at first, but he does like playing first. Get him as a DH, he is not gonna love it. Is he gonna do it? I am sure he’ll do it but first base is the spot for him.
“And I think the Astros, for that reason, Jose Abreu has another year to go after this one, but we’ll see if he is gonna be able to do anything. Obviously, they didn’t. … They’ve got some other potential options there but Alonso makes sense for the Astros.”
Alonso has been very durable, missing only 24 games in five MLB seasons entering this one, and, more important, he has been very productive. Alonso led the league with 53 home runs as a rookie in 2019, and has knocked 40-plus homers in each of his last two seasons. He drove in a league-high 131 runs in 2022 and batted in 118 last season, despite hitting only .217.
Astros Badly Need 1B Help
The Astros could land Alonso at a relatively cheap price because of his upcoming free agency. It also helps that he is a first baseman in a market that is well-saturated with first basemen.
The Astros badly need an upgrade at that spot, with the 37-year-old Abreu posting a woeful .117/.168/.160 slash line. The other first baseman, Jon Singleton, is batting .211.
What happens beyond 2024 with Alonso could bear watching, too. The assumption is that the Astros would keep him just as a boost for the offense this year, because signing him would be extravagant—Spotrac projects his next contract to run eight years and $263 million.
But that’s not the Astros’ current concern. The team needs to stay afloat here in the next four months. Alonso could help the offense do just that.
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