Getty Pete Alonso
Pete Alonso is now more likely to stay with the New York Mets than be dealt at the trade deadline, according to Jim Bowden of The Athletic.
There’s a simple explanation for the Mets’ change in heart: The team is winning. Through June 25, New York was 8-2 in its previous 10 games, climbing back into the National League wild-card race. Heading into play on June 26, the Mets are only 1.5 games out of a playoff spot. With the postseason in sight, it would take a massive offer to get the Mets to trade Alonso.
“Execs now feel it’s more unlikely than likely that they’ll trade Alonso, unless they are overwhelmed with a trade offer from a team such as the Astros or Mariners,” Bowden wrote.
The Mets’ latest win came over their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees, in a 9-7 rollercoaster at Citi Field.
The Mets Still Want Alonso for the Future
The belief around baseball had been that if the Mets dealt Alonso at the trade deadline, they’d have a good chance at re-signing him in the offseason. Bowden now says they’re more likely to bring back the Polar Bear if he stays in town.
“It’s also thought that some in the Mets front office believe they’ll have a better chance to re-sign Alonso in the offseason if they don’t trade him,” Bowden wrote, adding, “many teams still think the Mets could follow their blueprint from last year’s trade deadline deals of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.”
After loading up the prior offseason, the Mets stumbled in the first half of 2023, leading the team to pull the plug on the season and deal its most valuable assets. By trading Verlander and Scherzer, they loaded up on prospects, getting current top 100 players Drew Gilbert, Ryan Clifford and Luisangel Acuna in return.
That reloaded the Mets’ farm system, which now ranks in the top 10 in baseball, according to a list that Bleacher Report published June 21.
It could be tempting to do that again, especially if the Grimace Effect wears out and they think they can find a way to lure Alonso back.
Pete Alonso Acknowledges the Grimace Effect
Could the Grimace Mets be more than a running joke among baseball fans? For the uninitiated, the once-floundering Mets unreeled a seven-game winning streak after the popular McDonald’s character threw out the first pitch at a game at Citi Field a couple of weeks ago.
What started as a running joke on social media with fans posting messages like “the Mets are undefeated since Grimace threw out the first pitch” soon took on a life of its own. Now, fans are even dressing up as Grimace to attend games.
The Mets are still undefeated since Grimace’s first pitch.
Alonso seems all-in on the goofy theory as well.
Mic’d up on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast over the weekend, he credited the purple mascot for the team’s change in fortune.
“Grimace got us hot,” Alonso said during the Mets’ 5-2 win over the Cubs. “If we can keep Grimace around and keep playing good ball, good things are going to happen… It takes time for certain things to unfold. Those seven games didn’t happen all at once, I mean winning seven in a row was super nice. We’ve played really well on the road so far, and it’s been nice playing well, that’s for sure.”