The New York Mets are having one of the most gut-wrenching offseasons in recent history this year. First, they lose their superstar closer Edwin Diaz to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and today they lose their superstar slugger Pete Alonso to the Baltimore Orioles.
Fansided’s Chris Landers believes there’s pretty much only one move they can make that can salvage this offseason into something resembling a success: signing Kyle Tucker.
“With one very notable exception, that is: Kyle Tucker, a legitimate top-10 bat entering free agency ahead of his age-29 season. Tucker is everything this Mets offense is looking for, and he just so happens to play a position now vacant after the Brandon Nimmo trade. Tucker is a far better future investment than Alonso would be, even at something approaching $350-400 million, giving the Mets another star bat to pair with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, who has a longer runway and figures to age better than Alonso will,” Landers wrote.
This past season, Tucker slashed.266/.377/.464/.841 with 25 doubles, 22 home runs, 73 RBI, and 25 stolen bases in 136 games played. He would be great next to Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, and could make up the offense of Alonso, while being an upgrade on defense.
The Mets have the money for him, too. Especially since they lost Alonso and Diaz, they could take the money they might have spent on them and put it towards Tucker.
If the Mets don’t land Tucker, they’ll have missed out on him, Alonso, and Kyle Schwarber, the top sluggers of this free agent class. If they don’t want to become more of an embarrassment since the beginning of last season, they need to go all-out for Tucker.
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