Pete Alonso is mired in another alarming slump and the Mets are swooning, in part, because of it.
Over his last 10 games entering Monday night’s series opener with the St. Louis Cardinals, the slugger is 2-for-his-last-36 (.056) with a .353 OPS, one home run, four RBI, and 11 strikeouts.
It came to a head during Sunday’s series finale down in Tampa against the Rays when Alonso squandered two consecutive opportunities with one out and the bases loaded.
With the Mets trailing 3-2 in the top of the third, he popped out to second base, chasing a fastball up in the zone that he got woefully under.
In the fourth after his side rallied to take a 5-4 lead, he could have blown the game open. Instead, he topped a 2-1 sinker down and in to third base to start an inning-ending double play. After striking out swinging in the eighth, he missed on a sinker that sat middle-middle in the zone to pop it up to third in foul territory in the ninth.
The Rays would tie it in the ninth and win it in the 10th, making Alonso’s missed opportunities all the more glaring.
“It’s frustrating for sure not being able to come through in situations,” Alonso told reporters (h/t SNY). “I need to be better. All the work and the stuff like that preparing for the game. No one really sees that, no one really cares about that. People care about performance. It’s just frustrating not to be able to come through.”
Alonso’s inconsistencies paired with Francisco Lindor’s early-season issues that he has begun working his way out of have resulted in a staggering number of runners left on base. While Lindor ranks fifth in Major League Baseball with 73 men left on base, Alonso is tied for 12th with 67. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (Teoscar Hernandez, Max Muncy, Shohei Ohtani) and Atlanta Braves (Austin Riley, Matt Olson) have a set of teammates that have left more men on base than Alonso and Lindor this season.
But while the Dodgers and Braves are at the top of the standings, the Mets are squandering while Alonso struggles. During his 10-game slump, New York is 3-7 while being held to two runs or fewer four times.
It is imperative that the 29-year-old curtails this slump not only for the Mets but for his offseason. A down 2024 will negatively impact his free agency this winter even if no one in MLB has hit more home runs than he has since his debut in 2019.
A worst-case scenario for him would be a repeat of last season when he was mired in an extended swoon that lasted 56 games. From May 4 to July 19, he hit a paltry .175 (35-for-200). Fifteen of those hits were home runs but he also struck out 46 times.
Last season, Alonso maintained an upbeat approach throughout, imploring that he had to “find positives in every situation and make a meal out of a breadcrumb.” He managed to work his way out of it enough to hit 46 home runs with 118 RBI.
This time around, though, he is not as willing to lend insight on preparing to get out of this.
“Honestly, no one really cares about that,” he said. “People just care about production. Work hard, prepare. It doesn’t matter. When the lights come on, you have to perform and I haven’t done that.”
