Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso is many things to this franchise. He’s been one of the few consistent performers on offense in 2021, the club’s most legitimate power threat, and a relentlessly positive person — even in the face of defeat. But as the season winds down and the Mets’ playoffs chances keep creeping toward 0.0%, Alonso was finally facing reality after Tuesday night’s loss against the Boston Red Sox during his post-game press conference.

With New York’s lackluster performance since the All-Star break, a strong finish over the final 10 games would be welcomed with open arms. For Alonso, though, a strong finish would just be a continuation of the excellent stretch he’s put together since winning his second Home Run Derby title.

Once the Mets returned from the All-Star break, Alonso has slashed .273/.357/.562 with 18 homers, 40 RBI, and 37 runs scored, which is all good for a 147 wRC+. Entering Wednesday’s action, his power surge also had him among some of the league’s top home-run hitters in the second half.

That’s exactly the same number of homers he hit during the first half of play, but he reached it in 35 fewer plate appearances. If we keep looking at Alonso’s first- and second-half splits after a horrifying finale at Fenway Park, he’s experienced a nice lift in categories like OPS (.802 to .919), ISO (.227 to .289), and wRC+ (119 to 147).

He’s done all this while improving his walk rate (8.9% to 9.5%) and improving an already-improved strikeout rate (21.4% to 19.4%). After a year in which he struggled to find consistency until the end of 2020’s shortened season, this was exactly the kind of performance the first baseman likely hoped for back in February when he reported for spring training.

Alonso already has two years of 30-plus homers under his belt as he wraps up his age-26 campaign. Simply producing one of those performances puts him in elite franchise company, and it gets even more elite now that he’s officially racked up a second one.

There have been 671 instances of a Mets hitter accumulating 200-plus plate appearances in franchise history. Including Alonso’s 2021 output, there have been just 35 different seasons of 30-plus dingers in Flushing, accomplished by 21 different players. Within this group, nine players in Mets history have multiple seasons of at least 30 homers while with the franchise. Since Alonso has just entered this exclusive club, that’s what today’s focus will be.

Here’s the list of the players in that club, with some extra statistics thrown in just for funzies:

So, the Mets haven’t had a player put together multiple seasons like the ones Alonso has since David Wright did so in 2007 and 2008. Considering the direction in which baseball has gone with homers and the launch angle revolution, that’s pretty crazy in itself. Among the players in this group, six enjoyed consecutive seasons of 30-plus dingers: Wright, Carlos Beltran, Darryl Strawberry, Dave Kingman, Mike Piazza, and Todd Hundley.

Looking ahead to 2022, Alonso will try to accomplish two things at once if his power production stays at its current levels. If he reaches the 30-homer plateau once more next year, he’ll be the seventh Met to do it in back-to-back years, and just the fifth to do it three or more times overall. Although New York’s hopes to extend 2021 are all but squashed, there’s still something cool that Alonso could do if he gets hot over the last couple of weeks.

As the above table shows us, there have been just four seasons of 40-plus homers in Mets history: Hundley with 41 in 1996, Piazza with 40 in 1999, Beltran with 41 in 2006, and Alonso’s 53 in 2019. Obviously, no player has enjoyed multiple years of at least 40 homers during their respective careers with the club.

Hitting five dingers over the final 10 regular-season games isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do, but if there’s anyone on this roster who can get hot and do it, it’s the Polar Bear.

Alonso has only been in the big leagues for three seasons, but he’s had the kind of impact that understandably has many wanting him to stick around for the long haul. Even before that decision has to be made, though, he’ll likely tear apart at the majority of the franchise’s home run leaderboard. His 104 career homers already have him ranked tied for 14th all-time in Mets history, and it’s not outrageous to think we might see him within the top five before he’s scheduled to hit the open market in 2025.

Alonso will hopefully call Queens his baseball home well beyond that time. As he continues his assault on the Mets’ all-time homer leaderboard, it’ll also be great to see him start registering some postseason dingers at some point. Just sayin’.