25 Feb Getting to Know Pete Alonso
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso was named the “2019 National League Rookie of the Year” last year. Pete hit 53 homers & became one of the main leaders on the Mets.
Name: Peter Morgan Alonso
Nickname: Polar Bear
Born: December 7, 1994 (age 25) in Tampa, Florida
Drafted: The New York Mets selected Alonso in the second round, with the 64th overall selection, of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the Mets for a $909,200 signing bonus, and spent 2016 with the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League, where he posted a .321 batting average with five home runs and 21 RBIs in thirty games. In 2018 Alonso crushed 42 homers in 159 games between Double-A Binghamton, Triple-A Las Vegas, and the Arizona Fall League.
2020 Salary: $583,500
Which team did you root for growing up in Tampa? Growing up, I was super spoiled because Yankees spring training was 10 minutes from my house, the Tampa Bay Rays are 35 minutes away, and there was a huge baseball culture in Tampa. People ask all the time who I rooted for as a kid. The answer: no one. I had no true loyalty to a specific team. I just loved baseball. I loved watching it just as much as I did playing it. I guess you could call me a baseball junky.
If someone asked you to give a scouting report of yourself, what would you say? Definitely my biggest strength is my bat, but also to go with that, one thing I take pride in is my aggressive approach at the plate. I have a real simple but aggressive approach. If I see a ball that is remotely in my zone, or if I see a pitch that I think I can drive, I’m going to swing at it, or I’m going to take a chance that I’m going to take a good hack at it.
What drives you? My passion. I love this game. There’s a lot of times where I feel like a fan not a player. But I’m lucky enough to play this game. I want to be known as a winner, I want to be known as a guy that can help a team win. I just love to compete. I think it’s the best game in the world.
Going into year 2, do you have any personal goals? I’d like to improve defensively and try to win a gold glove. Keith Hernandez had (I think) 11 Gold Gloves, he was a great first baseman, there is no denying that and I want to be as fine-tuned as he was when he was in the game. There’s a lot of responsibilities on the first base side of the diamond and last year I felt like I did a good job of learning on the big league level and now I want to be great. I feel like I was good last year, but I know I have the potential to be great and I want to be able to capitalize on it, because I have a great opportunity and we have a great opportunity every single day. It’s a privilege to be in this locker room and I just want to maximize every single moment I have here, whether it’s Year 1 or Year 10 or Year 15 or Year 2. I want to take that same work ethic, that same intensity, every single step of my career. I take pride in all aspects of my game, but it’s just a matter of staying locked in on a day-to-day basis. It’s just all about putting together good days of work, and the preparation and the good work early before the game is going to help translate during the game.