Pete Alonso’s Adjustments Will Dictate His Future

Over his first season as a major leaguer, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso was labeled many things:

At first, deemed a not-ready-for-primetime player and defensive liability that wasn’t worthy or ready to make his MLB debut, it didn’t take long for the now-25-year-old Florida man to be dubbed an exit velocity prodigy, National League All-Star, home run champion, and eventually the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year.

The sky was the limit, but cloud cover otherwise known as the dreaded sophomore slump moved in.

It could be worse. A truncated 60-game season could turn out to be a terrific way to limit the setback that nearly all ballplayers experience once the league gets a book on them. 

As evidenced by his .260/.358/.583, 143 wRC+ rookie campaign, a strong foundation has been laid and the potential to shine is undoubtedly there. Upon closer inspection — brought on by his lackluster .231/.326/.490, 119 wRC+ second season — it appears there is still work to be done.

Though, when is the 60-foot, six-inch cat-and-mouse game ever over in this league?

Endless adjustments on both sides of the chalk are quite literally the name of the game. Always have been. Making progress is all about staying one step ahead. That goes for any walk of life. 

The unprecedented challenges the 2020 season brought with it and the resulting inconsistency we saw from Alonso could very well go hand-in-hand, but speculation will only get us so far.

A strange offseason — two managers and a global pandemic, for whoever’s keeping track — followed by a socially-distanced, staggered-workout Summer Camp likely left everyone a little off their game heading into the season.

 

Even a 4-for-4 night versus Boston on July 29 couldn’t save Pete from hitting .200/.351/.300 through the end of the opening month (one home run in 37 plate appearances).

A 1-for-10 start to August — as well as a number of outside-half breaking pitches whiffed on; back to that book — left Alonso visibly miffed. Though, as has been his modus operandi since being called up to begin the 2019 season, the slugging right-hander kept working and was making headway toward a resurgence.

Over 65 plate appearances from August 3 through August 19, Alonso hit .302/.431/.585 with four homers and three doubles. That’s more like it.

Unfortunately, that scorching stretch was brought to a grinding halt by the Mets’ four-day, COVID-related pause in play on August 20.

Unable to rediscover that spark — Alonso and the Metsies, who had won three in a row to sit 2.5 games back in the NL East — Pete went just 3-for-29 through the rest of the month.

With the Mets playoff hopes floundering but still very much alive as the calendar turned to September, once again, Tremendous Meat Pete arrived on schedule. Ten home runs over the final month of the season (.256/.316/.640, 95 PA) nearly powered New York to an NL Wild Card berth, but, alas, it just wasn’t in the dice.

Per Baseball Savant, Alonso took a giant step back facing fastballs — a pitch he crushed to the tune of .294 with .669 slugging percentage in 2019 — hitting just .243 with a 156-point drop in SLG (.513) versus those offerings.

That’s alarming, but there could be an explanation for that. Alonso showed he was susceptible to breaking pitches in 2019 (.203 BA, .418 SLG). Naturally, pitchers took advantage of that vulnerability in 2020 and the results stayed true (.191 BA, .397 SLG).

At times, as we all noticed this season, Alonso looked lost at the plate. Well, when you’re being fed a steady diet of breaking balls and are forced to hunt heaters, all it takes from the mound’s perspective is a basic game plan to throw a hitter into disarray. Until the hitter alters his approach, checkmate.

The constant adjustments Alonso makes this winter and in Port St. Lucie in February will be crucial to his success. Then as the season kicks off and rolls along in April, the litmus test begins as to what label will adorn Alonso next: 

Elite mainstay or flash in the pan.

After a sub-par – by any standards – and wholly unsatisfying 2020 season, Alonso is surely preparing to reclaim the form of his otherworldly rookie campaign. We shall see if those efforts come to fruition.

For the Mets’ sake, let’s hope they do.