Insider Says Red Sox Adding $54 Million First Baseman Would Be ‘Perfect Fit’

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora may be on the hunt for a new first baseman.

Since the Boston Red Sox traded away their top slugger and designated hitter Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on June 15, they have been looking for a way to replace his power in their lineup.

The Red Sox are also in search of a long-term solution at first base, since the season-ending May 2 knee injury to Triston Casas. Whether the Red Sox have faith that Casas, assuming he returns and stays healthy in 2026, can resume his place there remains an open question.

Missing 89 games with a rib injury on 2024, and now seeing his 2025 cut short after just 29 games, Casas has raised serious questions about his ability to simply stay on the field.

But even when he has been able to play, he has come well short of living up to the expectations of a 2018 first-round draft pick who was the Red Sox organization’s No. 1 prospect in 2021, the year before his MLB debut, with a good-but-not-great .800 OPS and 45 home runs in 816 big league at-bats.

In the month of games prior to his injury this season, Casas could never get untracked. He managed just a .580 OPS and .182 batting average with three home runs in 99 official at-bats.

Red Sox Forced to Use Journeyman Platoon at 1B

When Casas was ruled out for the season, Devers flatly refused to take over at first base, which appeared to motivate the Red Sox front office to trade him. Since then, manager Alex Cora has relied primarily on a platoon of journeymen Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez, each of who has performed in solid fashion, but cannot be seen as long-term solutions at first base.

While the solution proposed by MLB insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post may not be an immediate remedy, if the Red Sox are willing to wait until the offseason, the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso will likely be available as a free agent.

“Could Boston be a landing spot for Pete Alonso? He’s better when he goes the other way, but the Green Monster couldn’t hurt, either,” Heyman wrote, of the right-handed slugger. “Alonso, whose wife is from Boston, is practically a Devers duplicate offensively (.859 career OPS for Alonso to .856 for Devers) who embraces first base.”

Alonso Provides Similar Offense to Devers and Plays First

Devers has posted a career wins above replacement (WAR) number of 24.7 in 1,069 career games. Alonso has played 135 fewer games, but his WAR is only two points lower at 22.7.

Devers is somewhat better at getting on base, with a career .348 on-base percentage. But Alonso has a .343 OBP, and a slugging percentage of .516, marginally higher than Devers at .508.

After a lengthy free agency in the 2024-2025 offseason, the 30-year-old Alonso finally signed a two-year, $54 million contract to reunite with the Mets, the team that drafted him in the second round in 2016 and where he spent the first six years of his career.

Alonso with 226 home runs before the current season ranked third-all-time in home run total over the first six years of a career. Heading into Friday’s game against the New York Yankees, Alonso had 244 home runs, placing him just eight behind Darryl Strawberry for the most homers hit in a Mets uniform.

Alonso’s contract allows him to opt out of his deal with the Mets after this season and dive into the free agent market again. That’s where Heyman recommend the Red Sox pick him up.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin