51s slugger Peter Alonso ranks as NY Mets’ No. 2 prospect
Shortly after Peter Alonso was promoted to Triple-A and the 51s, his bats joined him.
“The other day, he said ‘Hey, my bats came in. They’re in trouble,’” hitting coach Joel Chimelis recalled.
A couple days later, after the glare from the sun had gone away between his first and second at-bat of the game, Alonso turned to Chimelis with a proclamation.
“He said “Chimmy, it’s on now. I can see the ball,’” Chimelis said.
Shortly after, the first baseman went off for three home runs and seven RBIs in the game.
The first baseman was a decorated player at college powerhouse Florida and a second-round draft pick in 2016. He has hit well everywhere he’s been in the minors, cementing himself as one of the Mets’ top prospects, so naturally the confidence follows.
Alonso, 23, was promoted to the 51s on June 16 after hitting .314 to start the year at Binghamton. He had 15 home runs and 52 RBIs and led the Eastern League in many major offensive categories at the time of his promotion.
Thanks to his prolific bat, he is now the Mets’ No. 2 prospect per MLBPipeline.
“I’ve hit at every single level. That’s really something I just do,” Alonso said. “I feel like it’s one of those things that it’s always been a strong suit of mine and I feel like I’m a really special hitter. I just need to get my glove caught up to my offense.”
Alonso made 19 errors last season after making none in 27 games with the Short-Season A Brooklyn Cyclones in 2016.
“It was more of a mental thing. I was a good defender in college, I was a good defender my first season right after I got drafted,” Alonso said. “I don’t know, I call it a defensive slump because it wasn’t just one thing.”
In order to snap out of it, he went to the instructional league in the offseason — rare for a college guy who had already reached Double-A — and worked with infield instructor Tim Teufel.
“He dedicated a lot of his time during that instructional league just helping me and just going back to the drawing board and just building confidence again and I felt good coming into spring training,” Alonso said. “I felt like a different ball player and it’s showing this year.”
The two worked on his set up, making it simpler, and on clearing his mind.
Alonso has cut down on the errors so far this year, making eight in 61 games heading into Thursday, though two came recently during his three-home run game on June 23.
“It’s something that was kind of like a black cloud hanging over me because I made a lot of errors last year and I feel like I’ve come really, really far in my development this year,” Alonso said.
With that black cloud gone, Alonso is working to polish both his defense and his bat.
Chimelis said Alonso has “crazy power to all fields,” and keeps things simple at the plate, though he needs to focus on his mechanics and pitch selection.
Manager Tony DeFrancesco said he thought Alonso would be a “frontline major league first baseman.”
“Right now, they’re kind of pitching him pretty tough. They’re pitching him hard and in, spinning the ball on him,” DeFrancesco said. “I think once he kind of lays off some of these tough pitches, he’s going to be doing some damage.”
For the damage he’s done already this season, he’s been generating his fair share of call-up buzz as fans eagerly await his arrival in New York. Alonso is excited for the future, too, though he knows that when the phone rings is out of his control.
“It could happen this season. It could not happen. It could not happen next season. I just don’t know when that moment’s going to be, but it’s something that I’ve worked my entire life for and I’m going to keep striving for every day and that’s the goal and once I’m there, the goal is to stay,” Alonso said.
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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
