The Met Files: Pete Alonso

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The Met Files gives us a detailed look at each New York Met. Today we’ll be looking into Peter Morgan Alonso. 

Way back in the summer of 2018, the Mets were having a historically bad month when it comes to their offense. While this was going on, some kid named Peter Alonso was mashing in Double-A Binghamton. There was a clamor to call him up then, but he kept his head down. Even then though, he exhibited a quiet confidence in himself that bordered on bragging but didn’t quite cross that line. He told a podcast around that time, “I wouldn’t want to pitch to me.” 

Alonso wouldn’t get promoted to the bigs that year, settling instead with destroying pitchers’ psyches in Triple-A Las Vegas. (In his last game there, he hit a walk-off home run.) Meanwhile, David Wright played one final game. The face of the franchise was retiring after his career was cut short due to spinal stenosis. When Alonso, now known as ‘Pete’, made his major league debut in 2019, it was as if the face of the Mets got a total makeover. Instead of a milquetoast, physically impaired martyr, there was a country strong, large adult son in his place. He even had his own cute but imposing nickname, “The Polar Bear”, given to him by Todd Frazier when he saw Alonso stretching one day. 

There was talk that Alonso wouldn’t be on the Opening Day roster, as to manipulate his major league service time. Instead, then Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen and Jeff Wilpon made the surprising decision to bring him up north from the jump. This would have repercussions right away and years down the road. He was excellent from the beginning: he became the first player in MLB history with 11 extra-base hits in his first ten career games. A lot of those extra-base hits were home runs. The Polar Bear broke Darryl Strawberry’s record for most home runs by a Met rookie…on June 23rd. Two weeks later, Alonso won the Home Run Derby. On September 28th, he hit his 53rd homer of the year off of Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz, breaking Aaron Judge’s MLB rookie record for dingers in a season. Despite this historic achievement and an exciting second half, the Mets fell short of the playoffs.

2020 was a lost year for mostly everyone, including Alonso. He slashed .231/.326/.490 with 16 homers in 57 games. Some folks thought Dominic Smith was the better long-term option at first base.

Pete was back on track in 2021, slashing .262/.344/.519 with 37 home runs and 94 RBI in 152 games. He won the Home Run Derby again, and hit his 100th career dinger, the second fastest player to ever reach that milestone. The season was not without controversy. Alonso alluded to a fictional person named “Donnie Stevenson”, who was really Alonso in a hat and sunglasses that would go into hitters meetings and encourage the team to “let it rip”. It was around this time that the real hitting coach Chili Davis was fired. The Mets were in first place for most of the year before they faded away spectacularly in September. 

The 2022 season almost didn’t involve Pete Alonso at all - in March his truck flipped multiple times after he got t-boned by a speeding driver. Alonso would later say his own strength saved his life when he was able to kick out the windshield of his automobile to escape with just an arm scratch. Not only did he survive, he set the Mets all-time single-season RBI record that year with 131. The first baseman played 160 games under Buck Showalter. The Mets made the playoffs, albeit blowing a big lead to not win the division. The Polar Bear hit a key home run in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Padres, leading the Mets to their only playoff win that season. 

2023 was a disappointing one for the Mets, but not for Alonso individually. Even though he made his first appearance on the injured list in June, he somehow ended up playing in 154 games, hitting 46 dongs and 118 RBI, albeit with a paltry .217 batting average. 

2024 was a magical year for the Mets, but for most of the time Alonso performed below expectation on his free agent walk year. It started off well - he single-handedly saved the Mets from starting Carlos Mendoza’s tenure at 0-6 with a game-tying home run on April 4th against the Tigers. While he played in all 162 games, Alonso “only” hit 34 home runs and only netted a surprisingly low 88 RBI. Heading into the postseason, most Met fans seemed ambivalent at best in Alonso returning to the team the following season. In the deciding third game of the Wild Card Series against the Brewers, the narrative completely flipped. An inning after he made an error in foul territory, causing Milwaukee fans to literally laugh at him, Alonso hit a 3-1 Devin Williams pitch relatively far towards the right center field wall. Alonso screamed as soon as he made contact - he would later say his former teammate, pitcher Tommy Hunter, told him that in the playoffs the ball travels farther than usual, so he knew it was a home run. The Polar Bear proved to be correct. The homer flipped the score from 2-0 Brewers to 3-2 Mets in the top of the ninth. They would go on to win 4-2. Pete would hit three more home runs in the NLDS and NLCS. 

In a lengthy stalemate of a negotiation, the Mets and Alonso were destined to reconnect, but it didn’t happen until February. There was a brief reported dalliance with the Blue Jays, but in the end, Alonso was destined to come back for at least one more season to break the franchise record for home runs, which he accomplished on August 12th. Pete played all 162 games again,  slashing .272/.347/.524 with 38 home runs and 126 RBI (it helped to hit behind Juan Soto.) Alonso’s defense at first base however seemed to take a step backward - on multiple occasions he made errant throws to the pitcher, possibly causing Kodai Senga’s hamstring injury in June, an incident that began the Mets’ slow decline that ultimately led them to missing the postseason. 

Anecdotally, there are folks who are Met fans because of Pete Alonso. Brooks Raley re-signed with the Mets because his son loves Alonso that much. In a recent presser, President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said that they factor in fan popularity when it comes to their personnel decision making. With that in mind, the Mets will make at least a decent push to bring Alonso back for another four or five years - provided he’s willing to DH more often. 

Jon Heyman tweeted that Andy Green, Mets Senior VP of Player Development, turned down “multiple managerial opportunities” to stay with the Mets front office. Green, who managed the Padres for a time, oversaw a minor league system considered by some to be the best in baseball, so that’s definitely good news, even if Green’s secret motivation is to wait out Carlos Mendoza for the Mets skipper position.

To the chagrin of some and the bemusement of others, Juan Soto indicated in his Instagram story that he was on his way to Cancun yesterday afternoon. I suppose I’m in the latter camp - I find it kind of funny that the filthy rich Soto is going to a locale inhabited by college kids every spring instead of a heavily secluded private island none of us schlubs has even heard of.

On this day in 1991, David Cone tied Tom Seaver’s Mets franchise record when he struck out 19 Phillies in a single game.