It certainly sounds like the Nationals are “in the mix” for Pete Alonso.

The Washington Nationals finally have some sign of life in free agency. With just a few days until the MLB’s annual winter meetings on Monday in Dallas, the team’s recent dry run and general lack of news has finally come to an end.

Although I wrote about Ken Rosenthal saying less than two weeks ago that the Nationals were considered out of contention for him, it appears that Pete Alonso still has life with the Nationals. So who is responsible for putting the Nationals back in the headlines? That would be MLB Network insider Jon Heyman, who said yesterday that the Nationals are “in the mix” for New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso.

Now it’s also widely rumored that the Mets and their owner Steve Cohen won’t let money be the reason they don’t sign Juan Soto long-term, so they could be considering inking over $800 million in the near future to put 2 players on the books if they were to re-sign both of them. I’ll just mention that both players are going to the Mets as they were considered favorites to sign Soto for most of the offseason, but now Heyman says they are still favorites to sign Pete Alonso too.

Heyman suggests it’s a three-team race right now between the Mets, the Nationals and the Seattle Mariners, who I predicted would be the landing spot when we picked our site’s free agents last month would be him. Both the Nationals and Mariners need to add serious power and impact to their faltering offenses from last year, while the Mets seemingly won’t allow anyone to outbid them for the players they want. Signing both players would be a big challenge, but not quite that much for an owner who truly cares about his team.

While Alonso is considered the most expensive option on the free agent market at first base, there is certainly a good reason for that, as he has hit no fewer than 34 home runs in a season excluding the coronavirus-shortened 2020 and is basically a shoe-in for an OPS over .800 and over 100 RBIs. Taking him away from a division rival would be crucial, especially by preventing the Mets from hitting Francisco Lindor, Soto and Alonso back-to-back in the lineup, which would be a major headache for the Nats in 13 games a year.

Alonso has been a staple with the New York Mets for some time now and it’s honestly hard to imagine him playing for another team, but as we’ve discussed many times on this site, he’s a perfect fit for the Nationals. The team has a glaring need for a first baseman with a ton of power, and that is Alonso’s specialty as a player. While the Nationals would likely have to fork out a bit more to bring Alonso back, it will be interesting to see if the Mets’ plans to bring back their first baseman would change if they brought Soto.

Do you think the Nationals have a chance of signing Pete Alonso? As always, please let me know at X, @DCBerk.