NEW YORK — Nearly six years ago, Pete Alonso stood alone in baseball history. 

On a warm and pleasant late September evening in New York, the Mets first baseman slammed his 53rd home run of the 2019 season and snapped a tie with Yankees slugger Aaron Judge to become the first major league rookie to reach that mark. The record-setting home run capped Alonso’s captivating entrance into the big leagues. From being unsure if he would make the major-league roster out of spring training, Alonso won the Opening Day starting first-base job, earned his first All-Star appearance, won his first Home Run Derby, and held the MLB rookie record for home runs. 

That storied summer was just the start of a special quest, one that laid the early groundwork for Alonso to someday make franchise history. For a prolific slugger like the Polar Bear, crushing 200 more home runs was bound to happen.

The moment arrived against Braves right-hander Spencer Strider in the third inning on Tuesday night at Citi Field. After flirting with the possibility for weeks, Alonso finally stood alone as the Mets’ all-time home-run king when he slugged his 253rd career homer, surpassing Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history.

The Citi Field crowd of 39,748 serenaded Alonso around the bases by chanting his name. The dugout emptied as Alonso’s teammates spilled onto the field and hugged him after he crossed home plate. Alonso sported an enormous goofy grin for several minutes, including when he stepped on top of a dugout bench and tipped his helmet for the first of two curtain calls he would experience on Tuesday night. 

“As a kid, you don’t really think that it’s in the realm of possibility to be a franchise home-run leader,” Alonso said after taking a break from sipping his postgame Coors Light. “You just don’t. You just want to get to the big leagues and give it your best. The dream is really this opaque and unknown thing. You just want to get there and compete for a World Series and play winning baseball. But to have that opportunity, you really don’t think about it. It’s a wild dream, to be honest.”

In the sixth inning, Alonso extended his franchise home-run record by parking his 254th career homer in the left-field seats. The moonshots were contagious. Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Alvarez, and Brett Baty all homered as the Mets snapped their seven-game losing streak by pummeling the Braves in a 13-5 win. In the seventh inning, the team announced it had run out of fireworks “due to too many Mets home runs.” The Polar Bear effect. 

“I’ve grown up in this organization,” Alonso said. “They believed in me as a 21-year-old kid. They’ve consistently believed in me. Hopefully they continue to believe in me.”

(Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)

Though Alonso seemed destined to pass No. 252 from the second he broke into the big leagues — after all, hitting the most homers in Mets franchise history is not a huge record to break, and it certainly isn’t Hank Aaron passing Babe Ruth with No. 715 — he almost didn’t get the opportunity to achieve it. In his contract year last season, the first baseman hit 34 home runs (a full-season career low) and recorded a .788 OPS (a career worst) in 162 games. On Sept. 22, 2024, the expectation was that Alonso’s eighth-inning groundout to third base would be his final at-bat at Citi Field as a member of the Mets. 

Not even two weeks later, he promised many more. 

Alonso changed the trajectory of his Mets career with his three-run home run off Brewers closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning of the 2024 National League wild card game. He extended the Mets’ season and gave them a shot at a deep playoff run that only ended by virtue of the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in Game 6 of the NLCS. The Mets’ magical season was over, but Alonso’s contract negotiations were just beginning. 

By February, Juan Soto was a Met and Alonso still hadn’t signed a deal. Reports surfaced connecting Alonso to the Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants. Mets owner Steve Cohen said the negotiations with Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, were “exhausting,” adding, “Soto was tough. This is worse.” Once the situation reached rock bottom, the only place to go was up. Finally, on Feb. 6, Cohen and Alonso reached a two-year, $54 million pact (with a player opt-out after this season) that made Alonso the highest-paid first baseman in the major leagues this year. It wasn’t the long-term deal Alonso was seeking, but it brought him back to the Mets.

“Pete’s easy to root for. He’s the embodiment of the Mets and the fan base,” Mets first base coach Antoun Richardson said. “You watch him play, he gives his all every single time.”

Ask anyone around the Mets what they admire and respect the most about Alonso, and it’s the same sentiment. He works hard. He plays every day. He makes preparation a priority. He gives his all. Yet, in Alonso’s case, giving the Mets his all might still not be enough to make him a lifelong Met. And as special as his franchise-record-setting home run was, it will always mean more if he stays in New York and keeps adding to that total.

Alonso is expected to exercise his opt-out and once again test the Mets and the market this winter. The 30-year-old is earning $30 million this season, and he still wants to lock down that long-term contract. Whether it will come from the Mets front office, which is led by president of baseball operations David Stearns, is anyone’s guess.

“I have a goal to play baseball until I’m through my age-40 season,” Alonso said. “And I’m going to work hard and do that. You know what, the business side, Steve and David, they gotta come through.”

Alonso was asked if he has an idea of what that final hone-run total could look like if he stayed a Met through his age-40 season.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Alonso quipped.

(Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)

If Alonso doesn’t stay in New York, he knows Soto could pass him as the all-time home-run leader. “Records are meant to be broken,” Alonso said, but he still hopes his own can hold up for a while longer. Soto, who has 229 career home runs and is tied with Alonso for the team-lead this season with 28, could realistically break Alonso’s record in the first half of his 15-year contract with the Mets. If Alonso stays and signs a long-term deal, it could be decades before anyone threatens to crack his home-run total, which could very well be in the 450-500 range by the time he hangs up his cleats for good. 

Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, one of the few players on the Mets roster who has played with Alonso since his rookie season, wants the slugger to receive what he deserves on a long-term contract. But he also wants that contract to come from the Mets. 

“I love Pete as a player and I think he’s going to do very, very well in this next market,” Nimmo said. “But if I was his counselor, I would sit there, and I would tell him: From where you’re sitting right now, you’re really good. You’re the highest-paid first baseman in the league. And if you told Pete Alonso at 18 years old, going to [University of] Florida, that he would end up being the highest-paid first baseman in Major League Baseball — more than Freddie Freeman, more than Matt Olson, more than Paul Goldschmidt. Obviously, back then, it would have been like, more than Joey Votto. He would have been like, ‘Yeah! This is going to be great. Sign me up.’”

Alonso has talked about wanting to remain a Met for life, and he would retire in Queens if given the opportunity. Now, he has officially put the ball in Cohen’s court. Alonso is doing his part by swatting home runs and helping the Mets win games. The slugger indicated on Tuesday that the pressure is on Mets ownership and the front office to re-sign a popular and homegrown player — a face of the franchise — to a long-term contract. 

The Polar Bear proved he belongs in New York. What will it take for Cohen and Stearns to come through?

“It meant a lot, even though he won’t say it,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Alonso breaking Strawberry’s record. “You watch that face and how much joy he had, especially when he stood on the bench in the dugout and tipped his helmet to the crowd, he’s like a kid with a new toy. He was humble. It was hard to describe the face of Pete there. He was enjoying the whole moment. It meant a lot to him.”

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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