How Pete Alonso has evolved into a complete hitter
New York Mets' Pete Alonso gestures to the bullpen as he circles the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
We see the results, because Pete Alonso makes them impossible to miss.
It’s a Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium — that place where he so loves to hit — and Alonso uncorks on a slider that dares cross his wheelhouse. It sails 447 feet to left, and reliever Ryan Loutos doubles over like he’s been socked in the stomach. Leftfielder Michael Conforto takes two useless steps and then watches it go. Freddie Freeman crosses his arms in chagrin, looking like your dad would if you brought his car back with a dent in the fender.
Brandon Nimmo, standing on second base, has to crane his neck to the spot where it lands.
But then there’s what you don’t see.
“After 2023 and in 2024, I didn’t necessarily feel like myself,” Alonso told Newsday on Sunday. “I was kind of teeter-tottering all year . . . I want to be able to feel like myself on a consistent basis. I don’t want to go through times where I’m trying to figure it out, where I don’t 100% feel like I want to feel [regardless] of the results. I want to feel good. I want to feel confident in my game plan. A lot of hard work has gone into working and holding on to good mechanics.”
There is a public perception of Alonso: He’s fun, he’s quirky and he hits very loud home runs. (See: The leg kick celebration that he instituted after every Mets win, getting into a national anthem staredown with Rockies reliever Zach Agnos Sunday afternoon, and the two homers he collected right after.) And while all that is true, what’s less celebrated is all he does to hone his craft.
It started to click around last year’s postseason — the one where he smashed a Devin Williams changeup to save the Mets from elimination in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Brewers.
“That may have been surprising for other people,” said hitting coach Eric Chavez, “but not for us. Sometimes, it would be hot and cold, but in big moments, Pete shows up.”
It's talent, yes, but right now, in what could shape up to be Alonso’s best season yet, it’s self-awareness and maturity, too. Though physical gifts can dwindle in your 30s, there are ways to level up.
“I really didn’t learn how to hit until seven, eight years in the big leagues,” Chavez said. “There’s a white ball and you put the bat to the ball and you’re trying to survive. You’d hit a pitch and you wouldn’t even know what it was. You’d go back to the dugout and go, hey, what was that? . . . But as you get older, you better know these details because the physical gifts start dwindling.”
Alonso, 30, likely is far from a large physical decline, but he understood that part of the game all the same. The result is a matured approach, coupled with the youthful glee that comes with being able to smash a ball into the stratosphere.
“I think before, you can just get away with talent,” Chavez said. “He’s a big, strong guy who hit homers and hit a baseball really well, but didn’t really understand the how or the why he was doing it, and he put in the right work and now he knows . . . He had a great offseason — possibly the most pivotal offseason of his career — and I think it bodes really well for him being consistent moving forward.”
The results are hard to miss. Alonso — who earned his fifth career National League Player of the Week after going 12-for-30 (.400) with five homers and 15 RBI against the Dodgers and Rockies — is slashing .301/.396/.594 with 17 home runs and an MLB-leading 61 RBIs, and his batting average, on-base and slugging would all be career highs if he stays where he is. Through 66 games, that puts him on pace for 41 homers and 149 RBIs.
“But the one number that’s always going to stick out to me is on-base percentage, because even though he’s a slugger, his on-base hasn’t been quite as high as the top-tier guys,” Chavez said. “He’s Pete Alonso. When he walks into the season, that’s 100 walks because pitchers are afraid to pitch there, but he’s never really gotten to [the MVP level of a .380 on-base percentage] . . . If his percentage is over .350, .360, those other numbers are going to be where they need to be.”
And that means far more than hitting the ball harder (he is) and with more consistency (he is). Alonso has 33 walks, putting him on pace for a career-high 81.
It’s by design.
“It’s not deviating,” Alonso said. “It’s trusting my studying . . . trusting my swing and staying consistent in my mechanics [and] the efficiency of my mechanics. The mechanics in past years weren’t necessarily as clean. There was a lot of wasted movement.”
It couldn’t have happened at a more frustrating time.
Alonso was about to hit free agency, and had endured, for him, two down seasons in a row. He hit .217 in 2023, but that’s harder to notice when you hit 46 homers with 118 RBIs. His 34 homers and 88 RBIs last year were career lows in a full season: Still very good, yes, but not when you’re trying to secure a life-changing contract. For a long time, it seemed like a divorce with the Mets was inevitable. Now, going into Tuesday, he’s just nine home runs shy of tying Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record of 252.
Everyone is rooting for him to do it. David Wright, whom he surpassed on the franchise home run list Sunday, filmed a congratulatory video. Strawberry has said over and over that he’s excited for his successor. Locker mate Jeff McNeil, who’s pretty much been with him since the beginning, lit up when asked about the prospect.
Alonso . . . cares a lot, but it’s not on the forefront of his mind.
He’s hyper-focused on the day-to-day. He and Francisco Lindor made it clear last year that the only goal is a ring, and, despite their different personalities, they act in tandem: Play every game you physically can, and play it all the way. (To wit, Alonso played all 162 last year, and Lindor is currently playing with a broken toe.)
That one-minded drive created evolution, and when ego doesn’t control the process, growth can occur.
“He understood that you could be taught something,” Chavez said. “For him to understand why things are happening and why he does certain things, it, for me, makes it sustainable . . . You get a little bit smarter. You understand what you’re doing. You may physically not have the same gifts as when you were 20, right? But the brain is such a powerful muscle.”
Comfort has been pivotal. But not too much.
“I definitely feel comfortable but at the same time, you can’t really feel too comfortable because comfort builds complacency,” Alonso said. “For me, [the key] definitely has been being more prepared, being more self-aware of myself and my swing and my ability. I definitely think that’s the maturation process in the big leagues.”
Not for everyone. But certainly for him this season.
Which is why Alonso, after a little hiatus, feels completely like himself.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
