Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith entered spring workouts with honest, viable shots to win the starting job at first base for the New York Mets this season. Both had fine Grapefruit League seasons, and both made the Opening Day roster.
While Alonso, 24, has taken the job — and the city, and the baseball world — and ran with it early on, Dom Smith, 23, has been relegated to a supporting role, filling out manager Mickey Callaway‘s bench.
Over 10 games, the Los Angeles, California native has gone 5-for-14 with four runs batted in, a strikeout, and one walk (.417/.500/.417). Despite getting just one start at first, Smith’s doing all he can to contribute to the Mets’ success. And that’s an awesome development.
The former first-round draft pick (2013; 11th overall) has done virtually all he can at the minor league level (.296/.361/.426 slash over six MiLB seasons) and has, by all accounts, earned the right to compete for the big club. Figures, now that he’s gotten that chance, Alonso just so happened to explode onto the scene at the same time.
Luckily for Smith, Pete Alonso is the only guy ahead of him now — and at least he’s a true first-baseman and not in the twilight of his career (looking at you, Adrian Gonzalez and Jay Bruce; you’re OK, Wilmer Flores). And in spite of their roster hierarchy, Smith and Alonso appear to have grown to become quite fond of each other. Also an awesome development.
Much has been made of the special bond between Alonso and Smith over the course of the young season. The camaraderie, support, and mutual respect being shown between two professional athletes competing for the same, high-paying job isn’t something we get to see very often. It’s refreshing, to be honest.
Before the Mets took on the Twins in the finale of their two-game interleague series, Callaway spoke to the media (video via @Mets) regarding the previously unknown, but now coming clearly into focus, first base situation.
“It’s really fun to watch. Going into the season, we knew we had Dom Smith and Alonso and we could move somebody over there if neither of those guys worked out. So it feels really good to know that we have two guys that can go out there at any time and fulfill what we need as a team and be the most competitive team we can possibly be.”
“I’d like to get Dom in there more but Pete has been unbelievable so you really can’t. Dom’s been valuable off the bench and Pete has been very energetic and has brought a lot of life to our team and man, can he hit.”
Pete Alonso pretty much forced his way into the conversation after hitting .285/.395/.579 with 36 home runs, 119 RBIs, and 31 doubles over 132 games between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Las Vegas last year.
Combine that, his solid spring, and the historically exceptional start he’s had to his career (.378/.451/.911, six doubles, six homers, 17 RBIs over 49 plate appearances) and the Mets have themselves a shiny new first baseman of the future.
With the option to keep Alonso stashed away in the minors for a few weeks, gaining an extra year of arbitration-eligibility out of the Florida native, on the table, the Mets bucked a mostly league-wide trend (there were a few more outliers this season compared to years past) and chose to give the right-handed slugger a chance to win the job and he did — in spades.
So now what happens to Dom Smith? If his transition from a minor-league hopeful into a major-league do-whatever-is-needed bench guy is any indication, it appears he’ll land on his feet. On Thursday, Smith spoke about his mindset as a major-league role player, telling Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports, “We’re winning ballgames, we’re in first place. It’s part of the game. You got to try to help your team win ballgames.”
As per Ehalt, both Smith and his representation “volunteered for him to play left field”, but the Mets declined to give that idea the green light. From an outsider’s perspective, that appears to be a vote of confidence in Dom Smith. His willingness to take himself out of his comfort zone at first base is admirable, but his value to this team as Alonso’s backup and as a lefty bat off the bench is what’s keeping Smith around.
Dom Smith’s seamless acclimation to serving as a quality pinch-hitting cog off Callaway’s bench and an able-gloved, late-inning replacement at first base has probably secured him a roster spot through the return of Todd Frazier. Whether he survives the ax when Jed Lowrie returns is still very much up in the air.
Seems like putting the team ahead of one’s self can have positive results after all. His solid play surely isn’t hurting his cause, either. In any case, Dom Smith is earning his stripes with the Mets and their fans so far this season.
