Pete Alonso provides Mets’ best chance to break ridiculous MVP drought
Here are two sentences. One of them is ridiculous. One of them is preposterous. Which one is which?
Number 1: Pete Alonso is on pace to hit 46 home runs, drive in 231 runs, and have an OPS+ of 153 this year.
Number 2: The Mets have been in business since 1962 and have never had an MVP winner; they have, in fact, only had 11 players who ever placed in the top five of the MVP vote (three did it twice), and three of THOSE were pitchers.
Actually, they’re both sort of ridiculous and preposterous. But only one of them is rock-solid truth: the Mets are one of only three major league teams who have never had an MVP; the other two, Tampa Bay and Arizona, spotted the Mets a 36-year head start.
Can Alonso be the one to end the Mets’ MVP drought? Well, we should probably begin by breaking gentle the news that he is probably not going to break by 40 RBIs the record that Hack Wilson has alone held since 1930 (though it is entirely reasonable to believe he could hit 46 bombs, and keep his data-point numbers high all year).
“I can’t wait to get back to Citi,” Alonso said Wednesday afternoon, after the Mets were done dismissing the Phillies 9-6 at Citizens Bank Park, capturing the rubber game of a three-game series, ending their season-opening road trip 5-2 and setting up one of the most anticipated home openers in years Friday. “I’m all-in.”
It is right that Friday at Citi Field will start with the long-anticipated unveiling of the Tom Seaver statue, because it was Seaver who brought the Mets their first ounce of legitimacy. He finished second to Willie McCovey in the 1969 MVP vote, falling 22 votes shy, the closest a Met has ever come to winning an MVP plaque.
The Mets’ trophy case is actually liberally sprinkled with other notable pieces of hardware. Seaver, Dwight Gooden, R.A. Dickey and Jacob deGrom have combined to win seven Cy Young awards. Five Mets have won Rookie of the Year: Seaver (1967), Jon Matlack (’72), Darryl Strawberry (’83), Dwight Gooden (’84) and deGrom (’14).
But the truth is there has been a dearth of MVP-level everyday players through the years — the type that usually, though not always, win the MVP. Strawberry was probably the team’s other legit candidate besides Seaver, owning the kind of skill sets that win the MVP award, and by rights he should’ve won in 1988 but he split the Mets vote with Kevin McReynolds, and so somehow Kirk Gibson and his 76 RBIs snuck in.
Sometimes you need good timing: Mike Piazza in 2000, Carlos Beltran in 2006 and David Wright in 2007 all had years that, in other years, might have carried the day and yielded the award. But not in those years. And so here the Mets are, 60 years in the books, no MVPs.
Can Alonso be the first? If not this year, at some point?
Well, he has the tools. MVP voters still love gaudy slugger numbers and Alonso is capable of that. And in his fourth full year, he seems as comfortable at the plate as he’s ever been.
“I think I’ve learned so much my first few years,” he said late in spring training. “I feel like my base of knowledge is greater and my comfort level at the plate is. And I think I’ve learned that you can have a productive day and not have to hit the ball over the wall.”
Although, as has become his latest catch phrase …
“All homers,” he said Wednesday, “are sick.”
At some point, you would think, probability takes over. At some point, you would think, the Mets will have a player who posts a 162-game campaign for the ages. They’ve had plenty of seasons like that out of their greatest pitchers; at some point, you have to believe, one of their hitters is going to channel ’69 Seaver or ’85 Gooden or ’18 deGrom.
Can that be Alonso? Francisco Lindor? Can it be Francisco Alvarez — tearing it up down on the farm, a 1.569 OPS already in Binghamton — in a couple of years? Sixty years and counting. That’s ridiculous. And preposterous. You could look it up … but, then, there’s nothing to look up.