First, Alonso has a capability the Yankees usually desperately want: availability. He’s performed 152+ video games in 5 of his six MLB seasons. Conversely, New York sluggers Aaron Decide and Giancarlo Stanton are identified for being harm susceptible.
Discounting his 2016 cup of espresso within the Bronx, Decide has performed simply 4 full seasons in eight years. And in seven years with the Yankees, Stanton has performed only one full season.
Primarily based on their observe document, there’s probability Decide or Stanton misses important time every year. And that’s along with every other regulars who miss time.
Alonso can also be trending in the precise course by way of batting common. A constant .260–.270 hitter his first few seasons, he misplaced his skill to get base hits in 2023, hitting a limp .217. His common climbed again to .240 in 2024, and there’s no motive to suppose he can’t get again into the .260s within the subsequent few years.
Plus, Alonso would offer the Yankees with further energy. He crushed a document 53 homers as a rookie in 2019, the yr of the juiced ball (see Gleyber Torres’ 38 lengthy balls that season), after which proved it wasn’t an aberration by placing up 37, 40 and 46 dingers in his subsequent three full seasons. His whole spherical trippers dropped to 34 in 2024, however, once more, there’s no motive to suppose he can’t get again to blasting 40-plus yearly.
Now, Alonso isn’t excellent. He strikes out an excessive amount of (average of 157 over 162 games) and grounds into a good quantity of double performs (common of 16 over 162 video games). Additionally, he’s a right-handed hitter who pulls most of his HRs and could be enjoying in a stadium constructed for left-handed energy.
Nonetheless, he’s nonetheless well worth the gamble. Right here’s why: If Alonso can flip his efficiency up only a notch and assist lead the Yankees to a World Sequence victory earlier than the Mets can get a championship, the Yankees could have gotten revenge for his or her crosstown rivals’ theft of Soto.
And if not, properly, at the least the Yankees tried. That’s about all Bombers followers can hope for at this level.
