Yankees free agency plans could start with Pete Alonso, but at a cost

The New York Mets and the New York Yankees will both have very busy and very important off-season's this Winter. Both organizations will be aggressively pursuing Juan Soto, with the two New York teams being the top two projected teams in the sweepstakes for the superstar.

But the offseason is going to be so much deeper than just Soto. The Mets have to worry about re-signing Pete Alonso this offseason. The Mets will try to work the money so they can bring both Soto and Alonso to the Big Apple in 2025.

But the Yankees need a first baseman too. And they could be very aggressive in bringing another 40 home run bat to the Bronx, if it's at all possible to do so.

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Pete Alonso could go from the Mets to Yankees

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report ranked Pete Alonso's top landing destinations in free agency, putting the Yankees at No. 5 while giving a pretty intriguing reason as to why he could land there.

"We've been assuming for most of the season that Cole will opt out of the final four years on his contract to force the Yankees to add another $36M season to the end of the deal," Miller wrote. "But if he triggers the opt out, it basically becomes a question of whether they want five years of 34-year-old Cole for $180M or six years of 30-year-old Alonso for the same price."

It's not very likely that the Yankees would pick Alonso over Cole in this situation, but when it's laid out like this, the decision looks pretty difficult to make.

The Yankees have a plethora of starting pitchers with more coming up through the farm system, though none are the ace that Cole is. But, Cole hasn't exactly looked like the Gerrit Cole of old since returning from an elbow injury this season. Cole posted a 3.41 ERA this season, up nearly a full run from the 2.63 ERA that he posted a year ago.

It's hard to imagine the Yankees choosing Alonso over Cole, but it's not so hard to imagine Alonso choosing the Yankees over the Mets. One team is in the World Series and the other isn't. Just something to think about.