MLB insider pours ice cold water on Yankees-Pete Alonso fever dream

The New York Yankees are reportedly not interested in trading for power-hitting first baseman Pete Alonso at the MLB trade deadline. In related news, I am not interested in dating Sydney Sweeney and Microsoft is not interested in publishing Mario games on XBox.

If you can't tell already, these are things that were never, ever going to happen, but not for the reasons listed above. The Mets, who are seven games under .500 even after last night's walk-off win, may very well move Alonso if they slip even further out of the playoff race. But trading him to the Yankees? Come on, man.

The reason this is even a discussion point is that Jon Heyman of the New York Post published a column on Thursday in which he mentioned that the Yankees' plan for the trade deadline is to focus on improving their bullpen, with relievers such as Tanner Scott of the Miami Marlins and Carlos Estevez of the Los Angeles Angels as options.

Relief pitching is already a strength for the Yankees, as they actually rank third in the majors with a 3.19 bullpen ERA. Still, adding one or two more quality arms in the pen can only be a good thing, especially if that keeps someone like Scott or Estevez from going to another contender.

As good as the bullpen has been, the Yankees' starting pitchers have been even better. Led by Cy Young contender Luis Gil, New York leads the majors with a 2.78 ERA from their starters, and in fact, four of the top five pitchers in their rotation boast an ERA under 3.00.

Heyman reports that the Yankees feel comfortable with DJ LeMahieu at first base if Anthony Rizzo doesn't turn things around, which rules out the possibility of chasing a splashy name like Alonso to bolster a lineup that already features two MVP candidates in Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

"The Yankees believe they are probably covered at first base with DJ LeMahieu and second with Jon Berti, Oswaldo Peraza and LeMahieu (who can play both spots) if either Gleyber Torres or Anthony Rizzo doesn’t regain his usual form," writes Heyman.

"In any case, the Yanks are disinclined to go for a big-money 1B such as Pete Alonso at the deadline and seem focused on the bullpen."

The only problem with this is that I can say with complete confidence that the Mets would never trade Alonso to the Yankees in a million years, no matter how interested the Bronx Bombers were in acquiring him. Besides, the last time a polar bear was in the Bronx, it didn't end very well anyway.

The Mets would never trade Pete Alonso to their crosstown rivals

Mets owner Steve Cohen has done his best to turn the culture of his franchise around since the dark days of the Wilpon era. To this point, those efforts haven't resulted in a superior product on the field, but in fairness to Cohen, in the past year he has prioritized a long-term approach that includes building the farm system. That takes time.

Mets fans are famously impatient and perpetually at odds with one another, but one thing nearly all Mets fans can agree on is that they hate the Yankees unconditionally. When rumors flew a few years ago that the Yankees would try to trade for Jacob deGrom, Mets fans were ready to riot just at the thought of such an indignity.

Cohen is no fool. He understands that perception is reality, and if the Mets dealt their star, homegrown first baseman to the Yankees, it would only reinforce the "little brother" stereotype that has been perpetuated since the franchise's founding in 1962. If the Mets do become sellers at the deadline, there will be no shortage of teams lining up for Alonso, who has led the majors in homers since he came into the league in 2019. Dealing him to the Yankees, who are already positioned as one of the World Series favorites, was never an option, whether the Yankees thought it was their idea or not.