Pete Alonso, heading to Baltimore on a five-year, $155 million deal, didn’t just leave the Mets short a franchise bat. His loss created a first-base hole they can’t ignore and pushed them into a market that suddenly has more demand than supply. After checking in on Cody Bellinger, according to Boston Globe Tim Healey, the Mets are now weighing another option: former MVP Paul Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt isn’t Alonso, but he still brings a level of stability the Mets don’t currently have.
He hit.274 last season with 10 home runs and 45 RBI. The power numbers dipped, but Statcast still shows quality contact: a 43.7 percent hard-hit rate and a 7.9 percent barrel rate. Those are signs the swing remains intact even if the results slipped.
His splits also matter. Against left-handers, the 38-year-old Goldschmidt produced a.336 average with seven home runs, the kind of consistency that gives a team options rather than forces them into a platoon.
Goldschmidt, who won the MVP with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022, was solid with the New York Yankees last year, but they aren’t trying to bring him back. He was a stopgap and now Ben Rice will take over.
That’s the plan, and they’re sticking with it.
The Mets, meanwhile, don’t have that luxury. They lost Alonso. They don’t have an in-house replacement ready to absorb 35 to 40 home runs and everyday first-base work. As their offseason gets reshuffled again, Goldschmidt fits the profile of a short-term solution who stabilizes the position and buys time.
The first free-agent market for basemen is not robust. Ryan O’Hearn, Nathaniel Lowe, Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto and Rhys Hoskins are among those available.
The Mets now have to solve theirs publicly, through free agency or trades, with fewer clean answers available.
Goldschmidt may not be a long-term answer, but he’s one of the few dependable options on the board. And after losing Alonso, the Mets’ margin for error just got even smaller.
