The Mets have already started remaking themselves with kids, with Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and a very hot kid over the past week named Ronny Mauricio. And you know what the Mets have to be hoping for, with every single one of them:
That they grow up to be a player like Pete Alonso.
“Pete is everything a team could want, and especially a New York team, because he’s embraced playing here,” Alonso’s manager, Buck Showalter, said. “And that means on the field and in the clubhouse, checking all the boxes.”
Then Showalter added this:
“You know what’s meaningful to any manager anywhere? Being able to write a star’s name into the lineup just about every single day.”
The Yankees have Aaron Judge, who hit 52 homers in a season when he was a rookie and who hit 62 last season and who, in an injury-shortened season for him, had 30 homers over his first 81 games. They have Giancarlo Stanton, who once hit 59 in a season for the Marlins. Alonso, the first baseman Showalter constantly calls “country strong,” can go toe to toe with both of them, because the player who has hit the most home runs in baseball over the past five seasons happens to be the Polar Bear.
He has 42 homers and 102 RBIs this season, which means he has a chance to get to 50 again, something he did when he hit 53 as a rookie and broke Judge’s rookie record. Darryl Strawberry, the Mets’ all-time home run leader, had 147 in his first five seasons in the big leagues. Mike Piazza, who came to the Mets mid-career, had 170 in his first five seasons as a Met. Alonso has 188. And counting. And his home run total is skewed because in one of his five seasons, the COVID-shortened season of 2020, teams only played 60 games and Alonso played 57.
By the way? He hit 16 home runs that time, which projects out to another 40-homer season if he had played 162. Now he has joined the club of players who have hit 40 or more homers in their first five seasons. The other members of that club are Ralph Kiner, Eddie Mathews, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols. Three of them are in the Hall of Fame. Alonso is on his way there.
When told of that list this past week on the night when he got to 40 again, Alonso said, “Impressive names.”
So, too, is his.
As much fun as the kids have been lately, the Met to watch is still him. Alonso, who is eligible to become a free agent after the 2024 season, is also one to keep. We know how much money the Mets have spent the past couple of years. We also know about the deals they made at the Trade Deadline to try to reimagine their future. You would think the club would want Alonso as part of that future as well.
Francisco Lindor, the Mets’ shortstop, is working on a $341 million contract. But Lindor essentially earned that contract because of what he did in Cleveland. What Alonso has done — the historic numbers he continues to put into the books — has been done at Citi Field. He hit 53 as a rookie when no one was sure he would make the trip north out of Spring Training. Last year, on his way to spring camp, he was involved in an automobile accident from which he was lucky to walk away. All he did after that was have another 40-homer season and knock in 131, a Mets record, on one of the best regular-season teams (101 victories) the Mets have ever had.
Since Alonso arrived at Citi Field five years ago, he has missed a total — total — of 24 games. The most he has ever missed in a season is 10, in 2021. So far this season, he has missed eight, because of a bone bruise and wrist sprain after being hit by a pitch. In comparison Judge has missed 165 games over the same five seasons that Alonso has been in the Major Leagues. Stanton, over the same time period, has missed 308 for the Yankees.
The bottom fell out of the Mets’ season long ago. It is why Showalter is now running so many kids out there in September. Alvarez, the Mets’ catcher, still just 21, is the only other primary catcher in history besides Johnny Bench to have more than 20 homers and more than 50 RBIs at the age of 21 or younger. Mauricio has hit the ground running, literally, with eight hits in his first 19 at-bats. He’s 22.
Pete Alonso is 28. In addition to everything else, he is now the fourth Met with three 100-RBI seasons. Strawberry’s number will be retired at Citi Field next year. Piazza’s already has been. They hit home runs for the Mets, too. Not the way the Polar Bear has.
