New York Yankees: What if Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso swapped teams

Alonso, the long-awaited answer at first base

The New York Yankees have been in a very long, continuous game of musical chairs at the first base position since Mark Teixeira retired after the 2016 season. The team did it’s best to replace Teixeira with short-term plans like Chris Carter and Chase Headley. They also tried to get by with young prospects like Tyler Austin, Garrett Cooper, and Ji-Man Choi.

Eventually, a long-term option, Greg Bird, arrived. But his health always let him and the Bombers down. The Yanks eventually made a trade with St. Louis in July of 2018 to acquire Luke Voit. After roughly one full season under his belt in pinstripes (157 games over two seasons), the 225-pound slugger looks to be the real deal. Health is a concern with him, as well. Additionally, Mike Ford showed signs of lefty power during 2019, something the team needs badly.

Now let’s jump into our “What If” version of the Yankees.

If Alonso were in the Bombers farm system, it would be safe to say that all the moves leading up to the Voit trade would have still happened since the Polar Bear was still in the minors. Instead of the Yankees trading for Voit in the summer of 2018, they call up a young prospect named Pete Alonso, who would end up playing pretty well in the limited time before exploding onto the scene in 2019.

He would’ve been the perfect replacement for Tex. With Alonso on the team, its like having a mix of Teixeira and Derek Jeter between the quality of his play and leadership ability. Bombers fans would be talking about Alonso as one of the best Yankee first basemen of all time.