MIAMI — The last time Pete Alonso was at Citi Field was nearly half a year ago. It seems strange to think when he last left Flushing with the Mets, the only big league team he had ever known, to go to Los Angeles for Game 6 of the NLCS, no one knew whether or not he would even be back there.
Alonso hasn’t been back since.
“Game 5,” Alonso said this week in Miami. “That was the last time.”
In only a few short weeks, Alonso went from receiving a standing ovation from fans to cleaning out his locker ahead of a winter of free agency. But now that Alonso is back with the Mets for at least another season, he’s eager to get back to Flushing to see the fans Friday, when the Mets host the Toronto Blue Jays in the first home game of the year. He’s even more eager to deliver a home win for those fans.
“That moment, it’s going to be so awesome,” Alonso said. “But it’s going to be two seconds long. It’s like OK, you enjoy it, you’ve got just a flash of a couple seconds to really take it in and really enjoy it. Then it’s like, ‘OK, game time.’ We’ve got a game to play, we’ve got a job to do…
“But all of us — I mean, every guy — lives for the little moments like that. So it’s going to be really special.”
It seems strange to think of the modern day Mets without the biggest star the team has produced since David Wright. The Wright era ended in 2018 and the Alonso era began in 2019, with the former captain passing the franchise face torch to the Polar Bear.
Alonso electrified crowds with his home runs, hitting more than any other player in the NL in 2019 en route to being named Rookie of the Year. When Jacob deGrom was unable to pitch, the Mets still had Alonso to give the fans a reason to come to games and a reason to have hope for the future.
Nowadays, Alonso isn’t the only franchise face. The club has grown in several aspects since he was drafted out of the University of Florida in 2016. Owners Steve and Alex and Cohen have been aggressive in their investments into the club, turning it into a premier destination for elite baseball talent. It started with Francisco Lindor’s contract extension in 2021. In 2022, the Mets were able to lure the best pitcher on the free agent market, Max Scherzer, to Queens, and the following year it was his former Detroit Tigers teammate, Justin Verlander.
But then in December, Juan Soto left the Yankees for the Mets in an unprecedented move. The best hitter in baseball wanted to play for the Mets. He wanted to play in Flushing where only two banners hang — 25 fewer than the amount that hang in the Bronx. Soto saw an opportunity to build a legacy in Queens by winning titles and adding to the trophy total.
In order to do so, he knew he needed protection in the batting order. He identified Alonso as someone who could provide it. At the time Soto inked his record 15-year, $765 million deal, Alonso was still a free agent. It was a tense winter for fans who wanted to see Alonso remain with the team that developed him, but in the end, the two parties came to an agreement on a one-year, $20 million deal with a player option for $24 million in 2026.
“I’m stoked to be back,” Alonso said. “Playing in at Citi Field is so super, super, super special. It’s such a sick place to play it, I love it. Fans have embraced me, this ...
