5) Washington Nationals
It’s not such a sneaky team to throw in here. Rumors of the Washington Nationals being a place for Alonso to sign are actually out there.
The Braves and Phillies are off the board. If he’s going to stay in the NL East and not with the Mets, the Nationals are about perfect for a team on the rise. In fact, many are still under the belief they’ll make another attempt to sign Soto.
Where the Nationals greatly benefit is having enough payroll space to make Alonso a ridiculous offer. They’ve stayed away from any sort of long-term commitments since Soto was traded in mid-2022. The focus has been on the younger players. Eventually, they’re going to need to find another Jayson Werth to signal to the rest of the league they’re ready to start competing for the playoffs.
Much like the Baltimore Orioles in some recent offseasons, the Nationals should be a ball club everyone expects to take their shot at top free agents. Speaking on behalf of baseball fans, it’s about time. From a Mets perspective, they can’t wait a little while longer? It felt good knowing they were on the schedule so often and easily beatable. Alonso won’t automatically make them a World Series contender, but it could be the start of building up a good team again.