In their annual countdown listing the top 10 players at each position around baseball, MLB Network named New York Mets rookie sensation Pete Alonso as the third best first baseman in the game on Saturday.
Alonso finished behind Atlanta Braves veteran Freddie Freeman (who was ranked second last year) and Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Max Muncy (who improved two places from his fourth place rating last season).
Alonso, 25, had a virtual All-Everything 2019 for the Mets, breaking team, National League and Major League records along the way. His line for the year was .260/.358/583, and the .583 slugging percentage placed him No. 10 in all of baseball. He slugged 53 home runs, the most ever by a rookie, and led the league altogether. Alonso drove in 120 runs which led all rookies and was No. 4 in MLB. He was third in the majors with 348 total bases and finished with a WRC+ of 143 which was tenth.
Other highlights from Alonso’s stellar first year were inclusion on the All-Star team and being named 2019 Rookie-of-the-Year. He received 29 out of a possible 30 votes in nabbing the ROY. On December 10, he was named to the first team of the inaugural All-MLB team. To read more about his incredible accomplishments, my piece on his Rookie-of-the-Year award and account of his freshman year is here.
Defensively, Alonso showed improvement at first as the season wore on. He had -6 defensive runs saved at first, but a slightly above-average 1.8 ultimate zone rating. He is already performing defensive drills at first in preparation for his sophomore season, well ahead of spring training.
Rounding out the top 10 first basemen were: Anthony Rizzo, Paul Goldschmidt (who was ranked No. 1 last year), Matt Olson, Luke Voit, Carlos Santana, Josh Bell and Edwin Encarnacion.
