Four years ago today, the New York Mets drafted Pete Alonso, a player who has already risen through the ranks of baseball stardom by leaps and bounds in just one year in Major League Baseball.

On June 9, 2016 the first baseman formerly known as Peter Alonso was watching the MLB Amateur Draft with his family in their Tampa home. As John Franco approached the podium to announce who the Mets selected with the 64th overall pick, Alonso quietly lowered his head during the announcement, having a sense that his name would be called.

Franco indeed called his name and Alonso’s family erupted in cheering, while Alonso was smiling from ear to ear.

When the Mets selected Alonso with their second-round pick, they got the player they wanted. In a May 2019 article from The Athletic, Tim Britton recounted the story of how Alonso became a Met and the years of scouting that led up to it.

Although Alonso was drafted by the Mets after his junior year at the University of Florida, it was while he was still in H.B. Plant High School when he was first on the Mets’ radar. Mets scout Les Parker introduced himself to Alonso and his father at the time, praising Alonso’s skills.

Alonso’s final conversation with former Met scout Jon Updike before the 2016 MLB Draft left him with the notion that the Mets were the frontrunners to draft him.

In a December 2019 interview with MMO’s own Mathew Brownstein, Updike spoke highly of Alonso’s tools when scouting him.

“Pete’s a tremendous story,” said Updike. “At the end of the day, from a scouting perspective, our job is to scout and evaluate tools. With Pete, he has an eighty tool. When we scout amateur players the first thing we’re looking at are tools. He has a double plus tool with power.”

However, while top notch tools are always a draw, Updike noted that character has a lot to do with successful draft picks and that was a question he also considered when scouting players.

“You identify tools and everybody understood that the kid could hit the ball a country mile,” said Updike. “But what type of individual is this going to be? What type of work ethic does he have? How easily is he going to be able to adapt? Specifically in our case where the Mets have to take into consideration that this kid’s going to play on the largest stage in the world and in one of the craziest media markets. Is he going to be able to handle it?”

Alonso passed both the tool and character test in the eyes of Updike and ever since the Mets drafted Alonso, all he has done is prove that their decision to draft him was a wise one.

After three successful minor league seasons, Alonso made the 2019 Opening Day roster despite arguments being made that he should start the season in Triple-A for a few weeks so the Mets would not lose a year of control.

Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen decided to stick with his word that he would take the best 25 players north for Opening Day, and Alonso proved that his decision to do so was a wise one as well.

Alonso made a statement during his first month in MLB by recording 18 extra-base hits (the most in franchise history before May 1), nine home runs (tied for the most by a Met rookie in a calendar month and tied for the most by a Met in April) and 26 RBIs (tied for the most by a Met before May 1 and the third most by a MLB rookie before May 1). The 24-year-old’s historic start to the season earned him National League Rookie of the Month honors for April.

April was just the start to Alonso’s accomplishments in 2019. Some of his other accomplishments throughout the season included: breaking the Mets single-season rookie home run record on June 23, winning the Home Run Derby on July 8, representing the Mets in the All-Star Game on July 9, breaking the National League single-season rookie home run record on August 18, breaking the Mets single-season home run record on August 27 and breaking the MLB single-season rookie home run record on September 28.

Alonso finished 2019 with 53 home runs and 120 RBIs, giving him the most home runs among all MLB players and the most RBIs among all MLB rookies. He also earned National League Rookie of the Month honors for June, the National League Rookie of the Year award and a spot on the first team of the inaugural All-MLB Team.

Not only did Alonso accomplish much with his tools since making his MLB debut, but he also accomplished much with his character.

Alonso donated $100,000 of his Home Run Derby prize money to the Wounded Warrior Project and Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. He honored 9/11 first responders by buying his teammates customized cleats to wear during a game last season on September 11 and then donated both his customized cleats and his customized bat from the September 11 game to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Alonso also recently started a charitable foundation with his fiancée Haley Walsh called “Homers for Heroes.”

Alonso has accomplished many things on and off the field since the Mets drafted him on June 9, 2016, and the future looks bright for the star first baseman.