While the 46 home runs Pete Alonso hit last season proves his impressive power ability, his .217 batting average and career-low .318 on-base in 2023 percentage suggest that his overall hitting could become more well-rounded — which he aims to achieve before the next season begins.
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Yet, although the Mets first baseman ultimately wants those numbers to improve, he also realized that adjusting his approach is the only way to do so.
According to a New York Post article Tuesday evening, Alonso said, "There's certain things that correlate to batting average. Minimizing chase is certainly No. 1. That will give me a chance to increase my batting average — swinging at stuff in the zone, and just consistently capitalizing on pitches in the zone. If I'm hitting balls hard consistently in the zone, that definitely correlates.
"If I am swinging at something in my zone and making a good swing decision, it's hitting it hard forward." Alonso continued. "In spring I am just going to focus on hitting the ball hard if it's in my zone and making adjustments from there."
While Alonso's sentiment makes sense on the surface, stats don't show that his hitting struggles are related to chase.
In fact, Alonso's chase rate of 27.4% last season was the best of his career so far. It was his hard-hit ball rate (40.1%) and percent of pitches in the strike zone at which he swung (61.9%) — both of which were career lows, and which show that Alonso might have been too picky in selecting pitches to hit — that could use improvement.
There's also reason to believe that Alonso's current contract situation might be factoring into his on-field performance.
Considering that stalled contract negotiations and trade rumors swirled around Alonso for most of the season — due to another year of the Mets' subpar play — Alonso might have been dealing with distractions that made him more hesitant at the plate than usual.
Yet, considering that Alonso is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2024 season ends, those trade rumors will only get louder this year if the Mets struggle once again.
Of course, Pete Alonso's performance at the plate should be the last of his team's concerns — although he probably wants his statistics to improve so he can earn a gigantic contract with another club next offseason.
