Mets hitting coach expands on 'transformation' of Pete Alonso amid hot start

While some have spent portions of the spring wondering if All-Star outfielder Juan Soto has been pressing in the early days of his New York Mets tenure, first baseman Pete Alonso has remained the top offensive performer for the first-place club that ended Wednesday at 28-16. 

For a piece published on Thursday, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic spoke with Mets hitting coach Eric Chavez about what's different with Alonso this spring other than the fact that the slugger is standing a little closer to the plate than he was a year ago. 

"Chavez said in the spring that Alonso’s transformation began with his hips, getting them into the correct position, holding them in that spot and firing them both at the right time and in the right direction," Rosenthal explained. "Now that he has less forward movement, he can better decipher pitches out of the hand."

Alonso's lackluster walk year and an alleged misreading of his value on the open market resulted in the 30-year-old accepting a two-year, $54M contract with an opt-out after this season to stay with the Mets this past February. Per ESPN, the "Polar Bear" began Thursday second in all of MLB with 36 RBI, fourth with a 1.004 OPS and tied for 15th with a .311 batting average on the season. Over his first 44 games, he hit nine home runs. 

"My past two seasons, granted, I’ve had success, but it wasn’t the type of success I feel like I’m capable of," Alonso told Rosenthal about the work he put in during the offseason. "I’m not going to complain about my performance. Don’t like it, play better. But for me, having a greater understanding of my swing, my mechanics, that has helped tremendously. ...I just didn’t think I was reaching my potential with my process. I just felt like there’s more meat on the bone, more inside I wasn’t tapping into. I felt like I was operating at 80 percent."

There are still more questions than answers regarding how much teams will want to pay a power-hitting right-handed first baseman who will be 31 years old in December. That said, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan is among those who think Alonso could "put himself comfortably into the $100M category with a shot at $200M assuming he opts out of his current deal after the season" if he remains hot through the summer. 

For now, Alonso is one of the top bargains in baseball as the Amazins head into a three-game series at the first-place New York Yankees (25-18) that will get underway on Friday evening.