Should the Giants try to sign Pete Alonso?

Pete Alonso just helped the Mets get to the National League Championship Series… Could his bat help power the Giants in 2025 and beyond?

As Pete Alonso stepped into the batter’s box in the 9th inning of the decisive game three of the Wild Card series against the Brewers, my brother-in-law commented that if Alonso didn’t do anything in this at-bat he would go down as “the most hated Met of all time.”

An extreme statement, but that’s where New York sports fans reside—the extremes. It was October after all. Every trip to the plate prior, Alonso’s appearance was met with a shake of the head. When he popped out in foul territory, it was met with a scoff. When he waved through a 98 MPH fastball challenge from Nick Mears to lead off the 7th, the outcome felt predetermined: Of course, you struck out…

In the bottom of the frame, after Milwaukee had jumped to a 2-0 lead with back-to-back solo shots, Alonso completely whiffed on a catchable pop-up in foul territory that would’ve ended the inning and stranded runners in scoring position. Instead it gave William Contreras two more dangerous opportunities to extend Milwaukee’s late lead against Edwin Diaz.

A close up on his face as he walked back to position from the net behind first said it all. And just in case the expression proved inscrutable: he uttered one unmistakable word in elaboration.

The giddy laughter of thousands of Milwaukeeans hollowed out his ears, their gleefully contorted faces burned into his retinas — a cruel sun spot that mocked him even with his eyes closed. And that enormous mass of ridicule would be nothing compared to that of the posters on Mets’ Reddit, or pundits on talk-radio, or the quiet tuts of disappointment from Keith Hernandez. All that Alonso had built in those six-years in the Big Apple—the 53 home runs, the Rookie of the Year, the All-Star nods and MVP votes and credit card commercials with Mr. Met—completely cored, mashed into a sauce with the slightly poisonous pips left like rodent droppings after a down year, a quiet series, and fruitless performance in a do-or-die game that could possibly be his last in a Mets uniform…

Then Alonso did this…

…and suddenly the accumulated weight of a soaked season dispelled like a pile of autumn leaves.

Relief, ecstasy burst forth upon contact. F*** —but the good kind—echoed out across the plains of a quiet southern Wisconsin. My brother-in-law exploded—but in a good way—all over his living room.

Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

The faces of Pete Alonso in three innings. The lows are critically low. The highs are historic. This is the Polar Bear Experience.

Brady noted in one of his responses in the most recent mailbag that the biggest need for the 2025 San Francisco Giants wasn’t necessarily positional, they just needed “thump.”

Alonso is unapologetically a “thumper.” He hits the ball hard—over 46% of the time in ‘24, 44% for career—and consistently gets the barrel to offerings with an above average bat speed and an over-eagerness to maul pitches. He’s a career killer of four-seam fastballs, and led the league with a cumulative 17 Run Value against the pitch in 2024. He’s been in the top-5 of National League Home Run leaders for the past six seasons and has never posted a year total (*2020) less than 30—a mark a Giants player hasn’t reached since Bonds. Even after this past season’s “dip” in which he posted his lowest home-run mark in a full season (34) while his OPS didn’t crack the .800 mark (.788) for the first time, his on-base and slugging were pretty much equivalent to resident slugger Matt Chapman’s.

Let’s throw a spray chart of Alonso’s 2024 hits at home over a map of Oracle Park and jump to some assumptions.

One, it’s possible that Alonso’s raw power would rise above some of San Francisco’s negative park factors. His pull-side thump is significant and far from “border-line.” The righty might even get a boost by Oracle’s shorter fence to dead-center. Perhaps the close arcade in right, or the call of the cove, could inspire him to exploit the opposite field more. That split-second of added time — ”seeing the ball deep” — should help him produce on offspeed pitches as well. His 3-run homer in Milwaukee came on Devin Williams’s devastating change-up; his homer against Jose Ruiz in game 2 of the division series came off a curveball. Add the homer off an Aaron Nola fastball in game 3, and Alonso nearly matched his season total of “oppo-tacos” (4) in his last three games.

Yes, Citi Field and Oracle Park have had a similar overall park factor over the last three years, but for a right-handed bat like Alonso, their differences are significant. Flushing is much better for homers while Oracle, with its dramatic gaps, is much better for doubles. Running for his extra base hits might be a hard sell to the lumbering Polar Bear.

The immediate fat added by Alonso to San Francisco’s lean cut is hard not to salivate over. As is his durability—he played in all 162 of New York’s games in 2024. He hasn’t missed more than 8 games in a season and has been on the 10-Day IL in his entire career only twice after being hit by pitches. That kind of Chapman day-in and day-out presence has franchise appeal beyond just on-field results. Alonso and Chapman feel an interesting pairing. Their 2024 batting profiles are pretty similar: great bat speed generating constant hard-contact, while often swinging out of their shoes… Then of course, they’re also complete opposites. Can we suffer even one golden pick by Chapman undermined by a botched Alonso scoop? Or a potential double-play ground ball induced by Logan Webb bungled by Alonso’s oven-mitt hands or weak arm?

Alonso covering innings at first base will be inevitable, and honestly, it’s certainly possible to lean too much into the inevitable doom wrought by his glove. He’s not a block of Swiss cheese, he’s not an inflatable noodle man flapping and flailing about with an oblivious grin glued to his face. Alonso actually led MLB first baseman with 39 scoops. He’s logged over 1,100 innings in the field in every full season of his career and made only one appearance as a designated hitter in 2024. It’s entirely possible that he wants to, and even enjoys playing first base. Writing him off because of his poor defensive metrics might be near-sighted.

But can you imagine what would have happened if that missed pop-fly in foul territory led to a run, or runs, for Milwaukee?

But can you imagine what would have happened happened if Alonso hadn’t been able to elevate a Williams’ change-up?

I think the biggest deterrent to the Giants signing Alonso would be Oracle Park’s reputation to hitters. The biggest deterrents keeping me from voicing my full-throated support for the soon-to-be-30-year-old’s signing would be his one-dimensionality (though I know his “thump” is what matters) and his cost. I love my brother-in-law. I’ve seen how Alonso has frustrated and tantalized him, and I’d like to avoid that if possible. Though on a whole, I think Giants fans are a much more sober bunch than those subjected to New York sports “journalism” on the daily, I get the kind of frustration that can grow to a boil over a season. The all-or-nothing swings and the defensive miscues compound. Now put the strain of an exorbitant price-tag on his performance (reports says he wants around $200 million; he turned down a 5-year, $130 million extension from the Mets in 2023; recently “comparable” first baseman like Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson signed around 6 years, $150 million)… it just doesn’t seem like a recipe that will brew mutual appreciation between a fan base and pricey new player.

Would Pete Alonso rewrite history again as a Giant? Probably not. Then again, isn’t all that risk and care and madness and worry long suffered for the infinitesimal possibility of blissful release the point of the whole experience?