Miami Marlins rivals re-sign key hitter

In one of the more important storylines of the off-season, the Miami Marlins division rivals were trying to figure out the future of free agent first baseman Pete Alonso. The storyline has finally ended with the slugger returning to the New York Mets for 2 years/$54 million. This is clearly not what he wanted, but the lack of a good market led to that,

Miami Marlins division rivals keep Pete Alonso.

The Miami Marlins are not spending much this off-season, if at all. Peter Bendix isn't in a rush to bring in any free agents, but at least we know the direction of the team. The Fish are rebuilding and will hopefully build a strong enough farm system to build the next winning dynasty. Or actually the first in franchise history.

Re-signing Pete Alonso is a great move for the New York Mets. I was actually very surprised that it took this long, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. They needed to keep his elite power bat in the lineup. They now have an improved lineup, though the pitching still needs to improve quite a bit.

The New York Mets now have one of the best lineups in the game, and should be competitive at least on the hitting end. More importantly, they managed to keep Alonso at the price that they wanted. Alonso allegedly wa slooking for a $200 million deal that simply never materialized. To be fair, he was coming off of an unimpressive platform season. He batted just .240/.329/.459, with 34 home runs and 88 RBI in 162 games and 608 AB. He was worth 2.6 WAR.

First basemen who aren't good contact hitters and are nothing special defensively (he had a -1.1 dWAR), are not in high demand. The Mets got a great deal and for once I have nothing but praise for their move. As a Miami Marlins fan, I'm of course unhappy about that, but I have to be honest and give credit where credit is due. Let's just hope that it doesn't work out for them as well.