{"id":341982,"date":"2025-12-12T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341982\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:32:10","slug":"cubs-met-with-pete-alonso-at-winter-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341982\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Met With Pete Alonso At Winter Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

First baseman Pete Alonso<\/a> is now an Oriole, as his five-year deal<\/a> with Baltimore was officially announced today. He drove from his Tampa home to the Winter Meetings in Orlando to meet with clubs before locking that deal down. According to Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>, he also met with the Red Sox and Cubs. It was already known that he would be meeting with the Red Sox but the connection to the Cubs is new.<\/p>\n

No details have emerged about the meeting but the Cubs presumably didn\u2019t sit down with Pete just to talk about the weather, so it can be deduced that they had at least some interest in signing the Polar Bear.<\/p>\n

The Cubs already have a first baseman in Michael Busch<\/a>, who is quite good. He hit 21 homers for the Cubs last year and added 34 more in 2025. His walk rate declined a bit but he also noticeably reduced his strikeouts, from a somewhat-concerning 28.6% in 2024 to an almost-average 23.5% this year. He finished the 2025 season with a .261\/.343\/.523 line and 140 wRC+, with solid defense to boot.<\/p>\n

However, he hits from the left side and is essentially a strong-side platoon guy. The Cubs only let him face a lefty 95 times this year and he produced a tepid .207\/.274\/.368 line and 81 wRC+ in those appearances. The Cubs signed 40-year-old Justin Turner<\/a> to a one-year, $6MM deal last offseason and he started at first base against most lefties. He didn\u2019t have a good season overall but did put up a .276\/.330\/.429 line against southpaws, good for a 112 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Perhaps an Alonso signing would have been a blown-up version of the Turner deal. Alonso swings from the right side and could have played first base with a lefty on the mound. The Cubs also have a somewhat open designated hitter spot at the moment, at least on paper. Seiya Suzuki<\/a> was the primary DH in 2025. With Kyle Tucker<\/a> becoming a free agent, Suzuki projects as the right fielder, next to Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> in center and Ian Happ<\/a> in left. They have guys like Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros<\/a> and Owen Caissie<\/a> in the mix for DH time right now but both are still fairly unproven at the big league level.<\/p>\n

Alonso is not a great defender at first and it was reported<\/a> last month that he\u2019s more opening to serving as a DH going forward. The Cubs could have put him into the DH spot against righties with Busch at first. Against lefties, Alonso could have put on his glove, with the DH spot open for someone else. That could be someone like Ballesteros or Caissie but they are both lefty swingers and would have to show lesser platoon concerns than Busch. Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> is a righty and on the roster but he has concerning strikeout numbers in the minors. James Triantos<\/a> is another righty on the roster but he hasn\u2019t made his major league debut yet.<\/p>\n

The Cubs lost a big bat from the middle of their lineup when Tucker hit free agency. Turner is also gone, which means they are down a right-handed platoon partner for Busch. Perhaps Alonso could have replaced Tucker\u2019s lineup presence and also served as Busch\u2019s platoon partner. Someone else could have filled the Turner role or they could have again looked for an affordable righty bat in free agency. That could have blocked guys like Ballesteros and Caissie but they could then have been used on the trade market to go after the big rotation upgrade.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now a moot point as Alonso is off the board but it could be illustrative about the Cubs\u2019 goals. It\u2019s well-known that they are looking for a big front-of-rotation addition but a lineup addition is also possible. They have been connected to third baseman Alex Bregman<\/a> and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> this offseason, both of whom are right-handed. Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> would be a somewhat similar pursuit. Munetaka Murakami<\/a> is another big corner infield bat who is available but he\u2019s a lefty. Old friend Cody Bellinger<\/a>, another lefty, remains unsigned. He can play first, doesn\u2019t have big platoon splits and can also play the outfield.<\/p>\n

For a signing closer in scale to the Turner deal, some righty-swinging first basemen in free agency include Turner again as well as Rhys Hoskins<\/a>, Ty France<\/a>, Wilmer Flores<\/a>, Paul Goldschmidt<\/a>, Connor Joe<\/a> and Donovan Solano<\/a>, as well as switch-hitters Josh Bell<\/a>, Abraham Toro<\/a> and Carlos Santana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the righty-swinging first base trade market, the Orioles getting Alonso should make Ryan Mountcastle<\/a> or Coby Mayo<\/a> available. The Rays could be willing to listen on Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a>. The Rangers probably aren\u2019t clinging to Jake Burger<\/a> too tightly. The Mets could move Mark Vientos<\/a>, depending on what the rest of their offseason moves are. The Astros would probably love to move Christian Walker<\/a> but the Cubs surely don\u2019t want his contract. Old friend Willson Contreras<\/a> may be available but he has a hefty contract and a no-trade clause.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First baseman Pete Alonso is now an Oriole, as his five-year deal with Baltimore was officially announced today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,50486,591,1831,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-341982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-michael-busch","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-pete-alonso","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}