Displaying items by tag: Pete Alonso

If I were Pete Alonso, I would want to leave the New York Mets organization. He has been insulted multiple times in a number of ways. Why would anyone want to stay under such circumstances? And so the Pete Alonso free agent saga begins again.

While it is true that Alonso had a down year – for him – in 2024, he still deserved to be treated better than he was, with a better offer than he received. His down year still provided a kind of power bat in a lineup that is not easily found.

Whether or not it was Scott Boras making unreasonable demands, unfortunately for him, no other team thought that way, no other team thought Alonso’s power bat appealing enough to make him an offer. And so he was compelled to return to the Mets on a mutually beneficial opt out contract.

Alonso ended up rebounding and actually having what is probably his best season overall in 2025, even if he didn’t top 50 home runs. Now the saga begins again, to re-sign Alonso to a big contract, or let him walk away. If I am Alonso, I would take the opportunity to go where I am more appreciated and under less scrutiny.

However, the Pete Alonso argument to keep, or fold, is subjective, and can be viewed a few ways.

So now that Francisco Lindor has officially been named the next captain of the New York Mets by Yahoo!, we can also bid adieu to Pete Alonso at the end of the season. Now, of course, it really didn't happen as reported by Yahoo!, but if it did, it would be the end of Alonso's tenure with the Mets.

Now I loved Lindor before he even became a Met. And I was ecstatic when they got him, and extended him with a hefty contract. And he’s my favorite Met.

But I don’t believe that he should, at this time, be named captain of the New York Mets. The timing would seem to indicate that there is a definitive mindset with regard to Alonso and his place on this team.

And what good is naming a captain going to do anyway? A leader leads. That’s it. At this point, given the changes in the dynamics of the game and how players behave and how they are treated, and the various roles in the clubhouse and how they have evolved over the years, the “role” of captain is truly meaningless. It’s an honorary status bestowed upon someone who is believed to be deserving of such reverence.

The New York Mets are off to a great start finishing the month of April with a record of 21-10, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in MLB to this point. Just as a reminder, the Mets had their best start to the season in 1972, with a record of 23-7 after 30 games. So before you start getting ahead of yourselves, the Mets finished in third place with a record of 83-73 in 1972.

With very few exceptions, you are never as good as you are when you are your very best, and never as bad as you are when you are at your worst. The Mets have rallied out to the 21-10 record without exactly being at their very best, and certainly not at their strongest.

I am so tired of the Pete Alonso saga. Will he continue to be a New York Met or will he be an ex-Met? And why has it gotten to this point? It’s February already.

Scott Boras is not ALL that is bad with Major League Baseball…but he has had a pretty big hand in the ruination of the National Pastime. And this debacle has his fingerprints all over it.

Overachieving. The New York Mets were not expected to be contenders. But they somehow came back from the dead and surged to a berth in the National League Championship Series against the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Nobody could have predicted that after starting off at 0-5 and stumbling and bumbling to 11 games under .500 early on, that the Mets would actually finish 16 games OVER .500 with 89 wins.

So where do they go from here?

So now that the MLB trade deadline is in the rearview mirror, New York Mets fans no longer have to worry about whether Pete Alonso will remain a Met…at least for now. And, for that matter, was it really the right decision.

I absolutely love Pete Alonso. I know he was a Florida Gator and as a University of Miami Hurricane, I should despise him. But there is something so endearing about Alonso…his hustle…his passion for the game…his passion for the New York Mets. Sorry Mike Rosenthal…and the rest of you Gator Haters…I like him.

Not even 24 hours after the final out of the final game of the 2021 New York Mets season, when the misery finally ended, manager Luis Rojas was cut loose…finally put out of his own misery. It is of little surprise, and even less consequence that Rojas didn’t survive this debacle of a season.

And, yes, it was a debacle. The team was brutal. Every player performed well below…WELL below…the expectations. Were the expectations unrealistic? Probably. Most of the expectations were for players who have had less than three years of providing evidence of their expected level of performance. So you have to wonder whether these players are actually CAPABLE of consistent high level performances year in and year out…or are these guys a team of “Super Joe” Charboneaus? Yeah…that’s right…you gotta go look that name up.

I just saw a headline that read “MLB Celebrating the Greatest of All” in regards to the 2021 Major League Baseball All Star Game. Greatest of all? Come on. You’re kidding me.

I also have read in multiple places where fans, especially Mets fans, are claiming, and complaining, that Pete Alonso will have ruined his swing by participating in the Home Run Derby. Again…you’re kidding me.

As for Alonso, and anyone else who participates in a “home run derby,” it is absolutely absurd to think that someone’s swing will be affected. These players sport a swing that is geared to home run derby every game. Launch angles…exit velocity…linear weights…terms in 1971, 50 years ago, were associated with a NASA spacecraft launch are now the science behind hitting a baseball.

And it was 50 years ago, the 1971 All Star Game, that it truly was an exhibition of some of the “greatest of all” in baseball history. In that game, 21 players that went to that game in Detroit made it to the Hall of Fame.

Blasphemy.

Trade Pete Alonso.

I love the guy. I am a loyal University of Miami Hurricane with deep ties to Hurricanes baseball. And I am a self-proclaimed Gator Hater. So that could put the Kibosh on loving Pete Alonso right there. But I have been able to look past all that Hurricanes vs. Gators rivalry crap enough to truly love and appreciate the guy…as a player and as a person. His hard work and hard-nosed play with passion is a truly welcome vision in a time when most players are brimming with self-entitlement. His engagement with the media and the fans…mature well beyond his years. He is a true darling in every sense of the word.

But let’s face it, the team is constructed poorly. It has been for quite some time. The team has had horrible up the middle defense for years. The Mets best centerfielder – Juan Lagares - has never been able to hit enough to play every day. And while they have tried a number of others who were cast offs from other teams, nobody was able to play well enough to enter the equation as a solution to the centerfield problem.

The Yankees have clinched the division title and have eclipsed the 100-win mark. Good for them. Congratulations. What they have done is amazing this season considering everything they have had to endure. They have survived serious, long-term injuries to key personnel. And regardless of who went down, there was someone to step in.

General Manager Brian Cashman has really done a fantastic job of keeping the team’s resources at maximum capacity, making some great moves to acquire players who played vital roles and made an impact. And with a mere 10 days to go in this season, you have to look at the Mets and wonder why this team couldn’t do the same.

Going into the last 10 games, the last seven of them at home, the Mets still have a chance to capture a wild card berth. They are not out of it. Not mathematically. But common sense dictates that the Mets can’t complete the comeback from an absolutely dreadful first half of the season and finish it off with a playoff spot of their own. And why do I think that? Because for one thing, the very asset that the Mets have that the Yankees DON’T have, is a starting pitching staff, and that staff has been good, sometimes great, but for the most part, inconsistent. And when you dig yourself the kind of hole the Mets dug themselves the first half of the season, you leave yourself no room for error.