Pete Alonso knows a lost season when he sees one.
Back at Citi Field on Monday for the first time since signing with the Orioles this past winter, the former Mets star said he can relate to the kind of year New York has just lived through. Alonso spent seven seasons in Queens and went through multiple campaigns that never matched the talent on paper, and when asked about this season’s collapse, he pointed to 2021 and 2023.
“All the talent, whether it be injuries or just things not clicking, it’s baseball,” Alonso said. “It happens. You can’t necessarily predict things and have things work out in the perfect manner sometime.”
The Mets have been hit by a mix of injuries, bad breaks and underperformance, and Alonso said the roster still features major talent. He called Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor “Hall of Fame caliber players,” and he also mentioned Sean Manaea and Nolan McLean, with McLean leading the charge within New York’s young core.
“Again, it’s so much talent,” Alonso said, “but sometimes you have a lot of talent and it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason. So just based on experience, in the future, they’re going to be fine.”
Monday’s loss officially knocked the Mets out of postseason contention, another harsh ending to a season that never got on track. Alonso’s own team has a very different late-September outlook: Baltimore remains alive in the playoff chase, sitting only a handful of games back of the final Wild Card spot in the American League with less than two weeks left in the regular season.
For Alonso, the change of scenery has been a positive one. He said repeatedly that he’s happy with the Orioles on and off the field, and at one point said he wants to finish his career in Baltimore.
His five-year, $155 million deal ended a decade-long run in the Mets organization, where he was drafted and became the franchise’s all-time home run leader. Even with the move, he made it clear he holds no bitterness about how his free agency played out.
Alonso said he respects the Mets’ decision and that once Baltimore made its interest known early in the winter, he didn’t want to “mess up a good thing” by shopping around. That early push made the Orioles the front-runner.
“When Baltimore came, they obviously expressed some serious interest,” Alonso said. “And for me, if they’re expressing themselves seriously, then I’m going to listen seriously.”
He also said, “Two things can be true at the same time. I’m very happy and appreciative of my time that I spent as a Met and I’m beyond grateful and appreciative for the Baltimore Orioles.”
When asked to pick his favorite Mets memory, Alonso didn’t hesitate. He chose his go-ahead home run off then-Brewers closer Devin Williams in Game 3 of the 2024 National League Wild Card Series.
“That ‘24 season was I think my favorite season for sure,” Alonso said.
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