MIAMI — Ignore all the empty seats and just listen to the crowd scream, “Peeete!” as Pete Alonso enters the batter’s box. Sense the anticipation as the stadium goes silent with the delivery of every pitch. Appreciate the rhythmic roaring of “Let’s Go Mets!” when Alonso connects for his first home run of the season, a grand slam.
Not bad for 1,300 miles away from home, right?
OK, OK. LoanDepot Park is not Citi Field. But the Mets’ 10-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday night contained the makings of a dress rehearsal for Friday’s home opener in Queens.
Alonso’s reception included.
When the real thing happens Friday, Juan Soto is the clear favorite to receive the loudest ovation. Francisco Lindor might be next. But the cheers for Alonso should rank right up there, too.
Alonso, careful to say he’s not looking beyond these next two games against the Marlins, is stoked for the home opener, but said he’s not thinking much differently about this one in particular. And after all, the feeling is fleeting, quickly replaced by the realities of another game. If anything, he said, it can be a memory for later.
“You get to enjoy it in the moment for maybe less than two seconds because then it’s game time,” Alonso said, “but then, really, you enjoy it more when you think back and reflect.”
Reflection is what makes this time stand out, though.
Alonso ended up re-signing with New York (two years, $54 million with a player option after the first year), but his presence in the middle of the Mets’ lineup wasn’t always a given. In free agency, as he put it, Alonso and agent Scott Boras received “dialogue from a number of places over the course of the offseason.”
So it’s fitting that on Friday, the Mets’ home opener is against the Toronto Blue Jays, a team heavily linked over the winter to Alonso. Some familiarity existed. During the offseason, Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios worked out at the same facility as Alonso (and several other players) in Tampa. Alonso counts former Mets pitchers Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer, both now in Toronto’s rotation, in the group of his “all-time favorite teammates.”
“So, yeah, there’s some dialogue with teammates and stuff like that, but, for me, I wanted to make the best decision for me,” Alonso said, “and the best circumstance is here.”
Alonso wouldn’t detail exactly how close he ever got to mulling life in Canada — or if he ever did.
“You have to think of what’s presented,” Alonso said. “Of course, you have to think and talk and think things over. But ultimately, this was the best decision, best place and best circumstance. Not just the history, but what we’re doing with the future. It was a very easy decision.”
Some history: With 227 career home runs, all with the Mets, he needs just 26 more to pass Darryl Strawberry for the franchise record.
Some future: His grand slam, following a walk to Soto, within a lopsided win offered a glimpse into the Mets’ lineup’s capabilities.
Alonso is supposed to serve as a powerful part of making it all go.
In spring training, Alonso talked about better understanding his swing. Mets co-hitting coach Eric Chavez summed it up more bluntly, saying that Alonso over the winter “actually learned how to hit.” It comes down to refining his mechanics and cutting down on chase.
Four games hardly count as a serving size to judge anything, but Alonso is showing good signs.
Alonso’s grand slam was a product of selectivity. He laid off a first-pitch slider, an attempt to get him to chase. He then watched a cutter at his knees get called for a strike. He remained patient. Fought off other tough pitches. Then, he finally got a pitch to hit. And he didn’t miss it.
“He earned that pitch,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Having experienced free agency last winter coming off a substandard season, Alonso knows what’s at stake with a player option following this season. He needs to keep playing good defense (he turned a nifty double play Monday), drawing walks and hitting home runs. He’s excited, he said, to keep trying to do it all in Flushing. Before the season, he said of re-signing with the Mets, “This was it.” Before that, wearing a smile, he told a room full of reporters not to believe everything on the internet.
“The biggest thing was people’s presumptions,” Alonso said when asked recently what he meant by that, what was right and wrong about the coverage of his free agency. “Just because you can have a logical perspective or thinking doesn’t mean it’s actually true in what’s actually happening behind the scenes.
“Obviously, Scott and I … we knew the whole story, everything as it came down. That’s why I said that. You are exposed to it whether you like it or not. Because I knew everything that was going on the entire time, there was no point where I was in the dark or wondering. For other people that didn’t have a look behind the curtain, that’s where they say, ‘Oh, it was a crazy offseason.’ No, it wasn’t. For me, I got to see the whole process — I had everything in front of me.”
However it worked out, Alonso remains with the Mets, at least for now, at least for one more home opener.
“I’m really excited for it because Citi is going to be packed and the energy is going to be super high,” Alonso said, “but we need to take care of business here in Miami first.”
(Top photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
