Pete Alonso spent Friday night reminding everybody what the New York Mets used to have, and he did it wearing the receipt. Two homers off the Yankees in Baltimore's 10-2 doubleheader-opener rout, the second one a 471-foot rocket into the left field bleachers, his 43rd of the season and the outright American League lead. Before the game he put on a shirt printed with his own quote about the "f-ing formulas," the line he aimed at Mets baseball ops boss David Stearns on the way out the door.
Subtlety was never the pitch with this guy. It was never going to be a subtle exit either.
What did Pete Alonso's shirt say about David Stearns?
The quote is Alonso's, about analytics and the people who lean on them, and he chose the night to wear it the way a hitter chooses a pitch. Then he backed it with the loudest possible argument. Forty-three homers. One hundred thirteen RBI, tied for the most in baseball. A ball that traveled 471 feet, which is not a number a spreadsheet talks you out of.
| Alonso, 2026 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Home runs | 43, AL lead |
| RBI | 113, tied for MLB lead |
| Longest homer Friday | 471 feet |
Here is the honest counterweight, because I am not going to pretend the front office had no case. Alonso is a bat-first first baseman heading into his thirties, and every analytics department in the sport prices that profile the same way. The formulas were not making things up. They were just also not watching a man carry a lineup on his back for seven years in Queens, hit 53 as a rookie in 2019, and win a Home Run Derby in front of a crowd that would have re-signed him on the spot. Both things are true. Only one of them was hitting 471-foot balls into the bleachers Friday.
Is Pete Crow-Armstrong having a historic season?
The numbers say yes, and they say it in a way I have not seen a line of numbers say it before. Crow-Armstrong finished this year at the 99th percentile in baserunning run value and the 100th percentile in both batting and fielding run value. Since 2016, only two other players have even reached the 95th percentile in all three at once: Bobby Witt Jr. in 2024 and Mookie Betts in 2018. Nobody had ever posted 99th or better across the board. PCA did.
He is a Chicago Cub, to be clear, and has been for years. Any version of this story that files him under a bright Mets future is reading the draft card instead of the roster.
checked the almanac: the mets took crow-armstrong 19th overall in 2020, then sent him to chicago at the 2021 deadline for javier baez, who spent about two months in queens before he left as a free agent. five years later the kid is the best all-around season in the sport.
That is the part that stings if you root for this team. Not that one trade went badly. Trades go badly everywhere. It is that on the same weekend, the homegrown slugger they let walk is leading his league in home runs in another uniform while wearing his own grievance on his chest, and the outfielder they used as a chip is turning in a season with no real precedent. Two arrows, same direction.
What's next for the Mets this weekend
The Mets close the regular season with a doubleheader in Washington on Saturday, 12:36 and 4:05 Eastern, which is a quiet way to end a loud year. The rest of the league is sorting its brackets around them.
What I am watching: whether Alonso holds that AL home run lead through the final day, whether he adds to the 113 and takes the RBI crown outright, and whether Crow-Armstrong's fielding and baserunning marks hold their places when the last box scores are in. Percentile leaders can shift in a weekend. That trio of numbers, in one season, probably will not come around again soon.
