Happy to be back, Alonso has unfinished business

JUPITER, Fla. -- The roller coaster for Pete Alonso over the past five months or so isn’t the kind at Orlando theme parks -- not so far from where Alonso and his wife, Haley, still live in Tampa. The roller-coaster ride is the one Alonso himself has been on.

First, Hurricane Helene tried its best to ruin his and Haley’s home in Tampa with two feet of flooding inside it (“We felt like we lost our home,” Alonso said). Then came a postseason with the Mets that included as dramatic a postseason home run against the Brewers in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series, one that saved the Mets season. After that came a winter as a free agent without his next job, despite all the home runs he’s hit for the Mets.

“But you know what will help you keep perspective about baseball?” he said on Tuesday morning at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium before the Mets played the Cardinals. “A hurricane that hit a lot of people harder than it hit us. I told people after Helene that we’d put in a new swimming pool, it just happened to have saltwater in it.”

Alonso was asked then what his attitude about baseball was across the months when there was no guarantee that he would be back at first base for the Mets, back hitting not just behind Francisco Lindor, but behind Juan Soto, too.

“I always felt that things would work out the way they were supposed to,” he said, “that I’d end up where I was supposed to be. All along, I felt as if that was back in New York and back with the Mets. In the end, that’s the way things did work out.”

Alonso smiled. “I’m a pretty patient person,” he added.

“As long as Pete was still out there,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, “I knew there was still hope for us.”

Alonso, who has shown across his career that he really is made for New York, didn’t want to leave, and in the end, Mets owner Steve Cohen didn’t want him to leave. And finally a deal was worked out a point that felt like the bottom of the ninth to Mets fans.

Alonso had played through the postseason knowing about the damage to his Tampa home and the major renovation that was eventually coming. But it was early in that postseason when, after a disappointing season by his standards (“only” 34 home runs), he did make the biggest swing of his home run career for the Mets. Of all the memories from the past several months, that is still the best.

I asked him during batting practice on Tuesday about that ninth-inning home run against then-Brewers closer Devin Williams -- with the Mets behind and next season staring them in the face -- when Alonso seemed to know before anybody else at American Family Field that the ball he’d just hit with all his opposite-field power was on its way over the right-field wall.

“Sometimes you just know,” he said.

In so many ways, it felt that night as if he’d not just saved the Mets' season, but saved his own at the same time. You wanted to believe that the Mets couldn’t possibly let him leave after a moment like that. But then came the long offseason when it seemed as if he very well might.

“I know what my standards are,” Alonso said, leaning against the fence in front of the visitors' dugout while the Cardinals finished taking their own cuts. “No one has higher expectations for me than I do. No one had to tell me coming out of last season that I needed to do better [34 homers, 88 RBIs, .240 batting average]. Hey, I knew I could have done better and should have done better even after 2023, despite all those home runs and RBIs [46 and 118, but with a .217 average]. It’s why I’m so excited about this season. We’ve got a great team here, and I’m ready to help us do great things.”

Then the player known as the Polar Bear, after what’s been a bear of a time for him, said this: “I just think the same thing I always have, that it’s a tremendous opportunity to be a New York Met.” He paused and added, “Still.”

People wondered what his attitude might be, after not making the kind of longer-term score as a free agent than he thought he might (reported to be a two-year deal worth $54 million in guaranteed money if he doesn't opt out). No one who knows Alonso or knows anything about the player that his former manager, Buck Showalter, once described as “country strong” should have worried. He is far too good of a guy, far too good of a teammate, has far too much pride.

He is also still just second to Aaron Judge in home runs since arriving in the big leagues (232 for Judge, 226 for Alonso). Something else that hasn’t changed.

“I just look at this upcoming season as a tremendous opportunity,” Alonso said.

Then he went to take his swings with the other Mets who had made the trip to Jupiter. Still a Met. Back where he belongs. Looking to be a great Met all over again. Look out for him this season.