LOGGING OFF
Alonso deletes social media, starts camp with focus on
PORT ST. LUCIE — Pete Alonso came into Mets camp with many intentions, chief among them a newfound desire to simply enjoy life. The COVID-19 that shook the world over the past year taught the Mets first baseman an important lesson. Alonso took things for granted far too often, a concept that was made clear to him when social norms were replaced with health and safety protocols and increased regulations.
So, in an effort to immerse himself and be completely “offline,” he made a life change and deleted all his social media accounts, including Twitter and Instagram, this pandemic week.
“I think that real life is just absolutely fantastic,” Alonso said Friday in his first press conference of the year. “I think life is a blessing. It’s something that I feel like a lot of people, sometimes including myself, take for granted. And I want to spend every second soaking in every single day because every single new day is a blessing.
“I just want to be appreciative of every single day. I want to live in real life.”
Besides logging off, Alonso worked on his body control by training and conditioning. He took just two weeks off after the final game of the 2020 season to reset his mind and refresh his body before hitting the weight room. He walked into camp looking leaner, but he didn’t exactly emphasize losing weight this offseason because he knows his strength is his power. If he loses weight and becomes slimmer, Alonso said, it means he won’t drive the ball as far.
“I want to be able to be athletic and powerful at the same time,” Alonso said.
Alonso is pleased with the work he put in this winter. He said it feels like his body is prepared not just for 162 games, but more like 180. A full season will mean a lot to Alonso if he can stay consistent throughout. Last year, the first baseman struggled to get into a groove with the stopand-go nature of the shortened, pandemic season. Just when he found a rhythm, the Mets were forced into a five-day quarantine because a player and coach tested positive for the virus.
His slow start in July (6 for 30 with one home run across eight games) soon improved with more reps and consistency. Once Alonso finally got going, the 60-game season was over. He posted a .955 OPS with 10 home runs in his final three-plus weeks of the season. With the universal DH
TAMPA — Gleyber Torres seemed to get the messages this winter. The first came from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who bluntly said the young shortstop came into the second training camp after the coronavirus pandemic shut down “out of shape.” The second came right before spring training, when Fernando Tatis Jr. got a 14-year, $340 million extension from the Padres.
“I mean, we know that Tatis is a great player. I feel super happy for him,” Torres said Friday after workouts at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “He got that big contract. And when I saw the news, I mean for sure, who doesn’t want to get the money. I mean, that is not the wish for everybody?
“I’m just trying to continue to play like I play, try to get better and nothing... we’ll see in the future if I get an opportunity to get a big contract for sure.”
Now, it’s time for the 24-year-old to show he understood the messages. Torres is certainly one of the exciting young players in the game like Tatis. The Padres’ shortstop is much better defensively and has a sweeter swing, but Torres has the talent and the opportunity this year to prove he is worth a lucrative deal buying out his arbitration and the first few years of his free agency.
Torres, who missed 13 games with a leg injury in 2020, knows that he has to prove he can be the Yankees’ shortstop of the future. If not, there is a talented class of shortstop including Javier Baez, Carlos Correa and Franscico Lindor expected to become available on the free agent market this winter.
“Overall it was not a really good year to me for a lot of things,” Torres said. “This year I prepare myself like I did in the offseason, I take many ground balls and just try to be confident in myself. To play defense better at that position, I do a little adjustment, little things like help me to get in position. I am just focused on getting better.
“I am focusing in the comments or people talk about my defense and just try to to get confidence in myself and try to help my team,” he continued. “I think that is most important for me. All my pitchers believe in me, when I’m playing the short, they don’t worry about if somebody hits to short. I just try to make the out and try to adjust every time. I’m just trying to work with (bench coach Carlos Mendoza), to repair myself, clean a little things and to try to take it into the season.”
Torres had nine errors at shortstop in the regular season, tied for the second most at that position in the majors, and two in the playoffs. He posted a -9 defensive runs saved and a -4 outs above average. He was in the bottom two percentile in outs above average, according to Baseball Savant.
But it wasn’t worrisome.
An All-Star his first two seasons in the big leagues, Torres had an all-around disappointing season this year. In 2020 he hit .243/.356/.368, career lows in batting average and slugging percentage. While his strikeout percentage was down for the third straight year, a good sign, his production was down sharply from 2019. He hit three home runs in 136 at-bats and his OPS dropped to .724.
“I don’t know. I think ’19 was great,” Torres said of his power outage last year. “I didn’t get any injury, it was a long season. Sixty games last year, I get an injury. Really, I don’t feel too comfortable when I go to the home plate during the shorter spring and the regular season. I’m trying to fix too many things. I don’t feel comfortable when I go to the home plate. People don’t know that. Last year I got better and better. I still feel the power. But I don’t know the home runs, I didn’t hit too many homers last year. I prepared myself during the offseason. Tried get a little stronger, more agile and we’ll see this year we’ll see some let’s see if I can hit the same home runs or more than (2019).”
Torres started to turn things around after returning from the injured list. He his .259/.377/.466 with two of his three homers in the final 18 regular season games. He went 10-for-23 (.435) in the Yankees’ seven playoff games. Mendoza has seen that carry over.
“He’s in really good shape. He worked really hard during the offseason and you can see it in the way he’s moving right now on his work on the backfield,” Mendoza said. “I go back to last year towards the end, when he developed a really good routine and his preparation. He’s just carrying it over, like, the attention to details and just being excellent. Making the routine plays, the details, the way he prepares, and you know, you could see it from the early going. So we’re very pleased with where he’s at right now.”
Torres came into spring training looking thinner and said he spent more time working out over the winter. That not only included getting in shape, but working on his skills at shortstop with Mendoza. Now, he has to translate that into the season and be the player the Yankees believe he can be. just his defense that was