HAVING A BLAST
All signs point toward 1B Alonso coming north with the Mets
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — If the idea is to break camp with the 25 best players, as Mets officials have insisted is true this spring, Pete Alonso is a slam dunk for the major league roster.
Offense, defense, running the bases, the rookie first baseman has shown the Mets everything they could have wanted. Asked Sunday if there is a case that could be made Alonso isn’t one of the team’s best 25 players, manager Mickey Callaway was direct.
“No,” Callaway said. “Plain and simple. Obviously we do have a week-and-a-half left, but he’s done a great job.”
This was after Alonso smashed his team-leading fourth homer of the Grapefruit League in a 10-5 loss to the Nationals. Alonso has posted a 1.058 OPS this spring and has shown improvement at first base.
If the 24-year-old Alonso isn’t on the Opening Day roster at this point, barring an injury, it would almost certainly signify the team has decided to manipulate his service time to keep him under club control for an additional season. By keeping Alonso in the minor leagues for two weeks, the Mets can gain that extra year of control.
But general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has repeatedly said Alonso’s service time won’t be an issue and he will crack the Opening Day roster if he’s worthy.
“I feel like I have done a really good job of playing complete baseball,” Alonso said. “I have played well defensively and done some really awesome things offensively and I feel like I have run the bases well and done a good job of doing the little things right. I just want to continue having a good spring and I know we are only a couple of days away, but I just want to finish strong and continuing to play well, because I just want to stay locked in.”
Alonso’s chief competition at first base, Dominic Smith, has a .906 OPS. Among the possibilities is the Mets would break camp with Alonso and Smith on the roster, as Jed Lowrie and Todd Frazier are likely to begin the season on the injured list.
Alonso had already struck out twice in the game when he came to the plate against Henderson Alvarez in the seventh inning and cleared the right-field fence.
“He’s done a great job of ... not getting frustrated after at-bats that can be frustrating,” Michael Conforto said. “Especially today he had a couple of at-bats that could have taken his game a different direction and obviously he didn’t let that change the way he goes about his at-bats and the way he plays the game.”
And Alonso has also been noticed in the field.
“He’s putting emphasis on defense, on being a mobile first baseman, on somebody that we can count on day in and day out,” Conforto said. “He is definitely showing us something and you can see the effort is there, so I think he’s doing great.”
Alonso hit 36 homers in the minor leagues last season after he was barely noticed in spring training. But this spring he is as visible as anyone wearing a Mets uniform.
“This spring it was a big goal for me to just kind of belong,” Alonso said. “I feel like I belong. My first big-league camp I kind of didn’t feel that way to a certain extent because I was starstruck. I watched these guys on TV all the time, being my first spring training, it’s like ‘Oh, wow.’ Now I am coming in and ‘Alright, these are my teammates and those are my opponents’ and ripping the name off the back of the jersey and thinking of them as baseball players.”