Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

There are just a few guarantees in life: death, taxes, and discussing how spring training stats are meaningless.

It’s something that’s talked about every spring from all corners of the internet (I’m guilty of it, too). While the standings and stats ultimately mean nothing, it means everything to certain players. Established veterans use it as an opportunity to appropriately ramp up for the regular season, but not everyone has that luxury.

Young players — and older ones hoping for one last summer in the sun — use spring training to prove they’re worthy of a big-league roster spot. Then there are players like New York Mets first baseman, Pete Alonso, who is attempting to set the tone for 2021 after what was a frustrating sophomore season in Flushing.

Spring Training Through The Years

Reporting to Port St. Lucie this year probably felt familiar for Alonso. While they’re very different on the surface, there are some slight similarities to his situation back in 2019.

Sure, he’s no longer a top prospect trying to prove he deserves to play in the big leagues, but after the individual struggles he experienced last year, he’s out to prove his National League Rookie of the Year campaign wasn’t a mirage. Through the beginning parts of Grapefruit League action, he’s looking like the All-Star many of us fell in love with not too long ago.

Through 12 at-bats, he’s slashing a healthy .333/.385/.750 with three extra-base hits (two doubles and one home run) and five RBI. This is already a stark contrast to 2020 because he didn’t hit a single homer prior to Opening Day while slashing .244/.244/.289 in 45 spring training at-bats. I remember thinking this was weird at the time, but it became less weird when he stumbled out of the gate in July and August, fighting for some semblance of consistency.

There was no guarantee of him making the club out of camp in 2019, but he performed so well New York really had no choice. He earned his spot by hitting .352/.387/.620 with 10 extra-base hits (five doubles, 1 triple, four homers) and 11 RBI. It’s not that he needs to replicate that performance to have a good regular season, but experiencing some success now can build his confidence up high enough that he’ll be able to battle through the natural peaks and valleys of the year without too much self-doubt in his mind.

Early Impressions

Again, yes, it’s very early in spring training, but let’s not forget that Opening Day is about three weeks away. What players do now can help get their respective years off on the right foot. What’s been most notable about Alonso in the early going is the opposite-field power he’s shown.

This was on full display on March 4th when he provided a vintage grand slam, and then he did it again over the weekend by hitting a double to right field on Saturday and a single to right on Sunday. Shooting baseballs with authority in that direction will allow him to relax and get back to doing his typical work in the batter’s box.

Here’s a look at his homer spray chart from 2019:

And here’s his hits spray chart from 2020:

What I’m mostly looking at here is the number of homers that went to center and right field. If my calculations are correct, only three went in one of those directions. This is interesting because if we compare his first two years in the big leagues, he hit more fly balls to the opposite field in 2020:

As I talked about not long ago, though, it didn’t lead to more success because his hard-hit rate dropped nearly 20 percentage points during this time. When Alonso is at his best, he’s using the whole field, and there isn’t a stadium that can hold him. It’s nice to see him already showing that ability again so early in the spring because it bodes well for what’s ahead in the coming months.

Living in Real Life

Baseball is a game of adjustments, but when we think of players making changes, it’s usually in reference to something on the field, not in real life. But as we’re reminded often, baseball players are real people like us, and they can get impacted by the littlest of things.

That’s why I love how Alonso is looking at the whole picture and adjusting in a way that’s healthiest for him, like by getting rid of his Twitter and Instagram accounts. Ballplayers seem to be generally good at ignoring the noise surrounding them, but sometimes, it’s just too much.

Clearly, Alonso felt a little bit of that, deciding to “live in real life” instead of getting sucked into social media. That seems like a small adjustment, but it’ll continue reaping huge dividends, especially when he’s fighting his way out of that next slump.

For someone like Alonso, who experienced so much success as a rookie while getting thrust into the spotlight, it’s a lot to get used to. There are high expectations put upon him and it’s easy to get stressed when things aren’t immediately going smooth, like most of 2020 on the field.

Each year in the big leagues is another lesson to be learned. Between coming to camp a little lighter and with an even more focused mindset, it seems Alonso has taken those lessons to heart. He’s off to a great start, and even though the stats technically don’t mean anything, they’re important for him and the rest of the Mets.