MLB Insider believes Juan Soto trade begins with Pete Alonso

Juan Soto to the New York Mets? It’s the latest of the Mets rumors making the rounds mostly out of speculation than anything else.

The NY Post’s Jon Heyman is always a good source of baseball information. Having already reported the Mets rumors about the team inquiring about Soto, he believes any deal for Soto begins with Pete Alonso. It’s a fact he states at around the 1:40 mark of the video.

Mets rumors: Would a Juan Soto trade really begin with Pete Alonso?

It’s about as preposterous of a notion as possible for more than just what it would subtract from the Mets lineup. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear; the Mets are not trading Alonso and a haul of prospects to the Washington Nationals.

Exactly what the Nationals would want in return remains a little unknown. However, with Alonso already reaching arbitration and getting paid well in it, wouldn’t they quickly be back in a similar situation with him? He won’t get the same type of contract as Soto but he’d have little interest in signing an extension.

Imagine how angry Alonso would be to go from being the leader on the Mets in a pennant race to the cleanup hitter on a rebuilding Nationals squad. It would be the ultimate backstab by the Mets. Looking at the human aspect of it, we can already dismiss the idea.

These are the first actual Mets rumors about what Heyman believes would be sent to D.C. in exchange for Soto. It’s one thing to do in the offseason. It’s much different in the middle of July. You don’t swap one All-Star for another and leave a gigantic hole in your lineup all the while also pushing a whole bunch of prospects out of your system. The trade only begins with Alonso.

Teams only have a little over two weeks to pitch their best offers to the Nationals. The chances of someone pulling the trigger now are much slimmer than they would be in the offseason. The Nationals would be able to include 29 teams in those talks with far more than contenders like the Mets being willing to pay the steep price.

Even then, if the trade must start with Alonso, it just ain’t happening. Washington would be wiser to look for players a year or two away from the major leagues and maybe even accept a couple of pre-arbitration guys. Their rebuild needs some good bones before putting up any wallpaper.