Darryl Strawberry's advice to Pete Alonso: 'Go out and have a monster year'
Mets infielder Pete Alonso during a spring training workout on Feb. 20 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Ask Darryl Strawberry about the looming threat against perhaps his greatest individual accomplishment with the Mets, the franchise home run record, and he is clear about what he wants to see: Pete Alonso beating him.
“I hope he breaks it,” Strawberry said Thursday. “The record has been there forever.”
The context is, of course, complicated. It gets at so much of what will go on with the Mets this season, from Alonso’s performance and contract status to the organization’s continued celebrating of its best players ever.
Entering his sixth season and last before reaching free agency, Alonso sits at 192 homers, most in the majors since the day he debuted. Strawberry is ahead by 60, having totaled 252 as a Met.
Alonso topping Strawberry in 2024 would take an Aaron Judge type of season — technically feasible but quite a long shot.
“Sign me up right now,” Alonso said with a smile.
In all likelihood, then, becoming the Mets’ home run king will require Alonso to stick around. So when Strawberry says he wants Alonso to be the record-breaker, he is saying he wants Alonso to be a Met for life, too.
With Strawberry in camp this week as a guest instructor, they didn’t start comparing home run totals. They spoke more about mindset, according to Alonso, and what it’s like to be one’s best on a stage as bright as New York. And the former great did talk to the current great about what the next bunch of months might be like.
“I said, I was put in the same situation by the organization,” Strawberry said regarding playing in a contract year. “It ensures you’re going to have a good year. If you put a guy in a position to have a good year — and he’s a [motivated] ballplayer — more than likely he’s going to go out and have a good year. That’s the upside to it.
“Just tell him to enjoy it and have fun. It doesn’t last forever. Make the best of it and go out and have a monster year, then you’re a free agent.”
In Strawberry’s case, the “door was not open” to stay with the Mets beyond 1990, he said. But it will be for Alonso, especially with a strong season, he added.
For Alonso, Strawberry’s mere presence is a reminder of what it means to be considered an all-timer with a club. He was a homegrown star who helped win a World Series. He set a bunch of records. And, come June 1, he will have his jersey number, 18, retired at Citi Field.
“It’s so special to be honored like that,” Alonso said. “He means a lot to the city of New York and he means a lot to fans of the Mets. He accomplished so much in his time as a Met, and I’m really happy that they’re showing respect and saying hey, you’re immortalized here.”
Under the right circumstances — i.e., if he re-signs — Alonso would be lined up for a similar series of accomplishments and celebrations. That immortality he mentioned would be within reach.
Alonso has done a good job of staying on message publicly, putting his blinders on and saying that he thinks only of today, this week, this season — not free agency. So don’t expect him to engage on such grand matters.
But the Mets’ homer record? If it doesn’t happen in 2024, “oh, well,” he said.
“That’d be really special,” Alonso said. “Obviously, [Strawberry is] such an iconic player, he means so much to this organization. If that were to happen, that would be a huge honor.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
