Mets played a dangerous game with Pete Alonso – but for now, it’s just super
If you are looking for a word to capture the first day of Pete Alonso at home as a meeting, ask the man to describe the opening day in Citi Field.
Time: “Super picturesque”.
Fans: “Super enthusiastic”.
Energy: “super high”.
Alonso has put all those descriptions in an answer after the 5-0 victory of the mets on the Toronto Blue Jays in the house painrs on Friday. The superlatives poured each other, captivating, purely healthy, purely Pete.
He had marked his return-in a place that never left a humerus in his first At-Bat. Down in the counting of Kevin Gausman, Alonso guided a quick 95 mph ball, low and off the plate, above the fence of the right field. He knocked his fist against his helmet as he rounded up first and exulted in a phone call from fans to Citi Field.
It was all only super. Still, it was amazed at the alternative universe that the mets entertained the whole winter when they could let another team meet Alonso’s price in the free agency.
In that scenario, Alonso would have been welcomed by his new fans like Juan Soto was in Queens on Friday: with educated and respectful applause, but very shy of a crazy and stupid love. Each Mets fan is enthusiastic about the Soto team. But every fan of the mets Ador The polar bear, in part because they know that it is mutual.
“Pete loves New York,” said defender Brandon Nimmo. “He loves the base of Mets fans and I am so happy that he is organizing a show for them. It was fantastic, he immediately puts us on the scoreboard. Only very Pete – finds the barrel and can leave any baseball field. We love what he is doing and we love Big Pete.”
The Mets loved Nimmo so much that they eliminated him with an eight -year contract and $ 162 million before the 2023 season. They were thus determined to land Soto last autumn that gave him the rich guarantee in the history of baseball at $ 765 million for 15 years.
They also paid handsomely for Francisco Lindor (10 years old, $ 341 million) and had no problems to detonate MLB launching salary structure with Edwin Díaz (the first $ 100 million closer) and the deceased Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander (the first appetizers of $ 40 million per year).
Alonso had every right to expect his Bonanza. The owner Steve Cohen was good for everything, and Alonso had shown himself as the main power beam of the National League. From 2019 to 2024, he hit 226 races in the house, according to the majors to the Judge Aaron of the Yankees.
But Cohen and his team of baseball operations, led by David Stearns, let the market impose Alonso’s value. They correctly guessed that Alonso could not beat the seven -year extension and $ 158 million which was offered to him in 2023 and waited for everything to take place.
In the end, just before the spring training, Alonso accepted a two -year agreement of $ 54 million which allows him to collect $ 30 million this season and then renounce. Perhaps Cohen simply wanted this once-to demonstrate that he could make a low-risk agreement and suitable for the team with a player who never wanted to leave. And he did it.
On Friday, however, it was easy to imagine a different atmosphere for the open if another owner had woke up in January and decided that he had to only have a first base of 30 years. Perhaps the Mets would have sold and combined any offer. But this certainly did not seem to be their position.
“There was once in this low season in which things were becoming quite sticky there in the end,” said Nimmo. “So we were definitely worried.”
The mets were aggressive with other parts of the team. The starter Clay Holmes signed just before Soto, obtaining three years and $ 38 million in early December. For more than two months, he didn’t know if he would ever be teammates with Alonso.
“It was obviously one of the last great free agents left, so there were many advances,” Holmes said. “After signing here, it seemed that people really wanted it and really wanted it to work. It took a little more time, but it certainly makes the training much better, this is certain.”
Pete Alonso marked his third race in the house of the season to give mets an advantage 2-0. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
This was clear to Miami this week when Alonso launched a Grand Slam on Monday and a Homer of three shots on Wednesday. And it was clear on Friday, even after the two -throw Homer. When Toronto intentionally walked Alonso after Soto doubled in the sixth, Nimmo followed the doubling of both at home.
“It’s nice to have a boy behind you when the club swings well, when it is hot,” said Soto, who made a devastating tandem with the judge in the Bronx last summer. “I think it’s really good protection. He gives me the opportunity to see more shots around the strike area and try to do more damage.”
Mets risked damaging their brand if they had left a little of another team to a local corner stone. They hit the bear – sorry – but the bear is back, however. And now he is roaring.
“Honestly, imagining he returned, for me it was just to win,” said Alonso. “Knowing the culture here, knowing the boys, knowing the camaraderie – you need a great combination of talent, hard work and chemistry, and obviously this place is familiar. I love here. I play play in Citi. I love to be in New York.”
Alonso is an imperfect player. It is very striking, it will not win the gold gloves and somehow did not win a shiny silver. But the race at Friday-the same point of his explosion of the season in Milwaukee last October-was a reminder to focus on what a player is and not just what he is not.
Alonso is a boy who purchases a ticket to see. In other words: a superstar.
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
