Darryl Strawberry Sends Clear Message About What Pete Alonso Must Do With Mets

Pete Alonso's likely going to break a few franchise records this season, but there's a bigger goal that franchise legend Darryl Strawberry wants him to keep in mind.

Jun 1, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets former player Darryl Strawberry speaks during a pregame ceremony to retire his number 18 before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Now that first baseman Pete Alonso has rejoined the roster on a short-term deal, focus can shift to the upcoming season and how the New York Mets can win the NL East for the first time since 2015.

However, according to one franchise legend, the focus of Alonso needs to be higher than just a division title or even Alonso's expected capture this season of several franchise records for power production.

"The only thing that is left for him now is to win [a World Series title]" Darryl Strawberry said to MLB.com after the signing. Strawberry, who won the 1986 World Series over the Boston Red Sox in seven games, said that breaking the organization's 38-year title drought was critical for Alonso's legacy with the organization. "No one is going to remember if you don’t win. That’s the whole thing about playing in New York. It’s about winning there. That’s what the Mets and Pete are looking at now. All he needs to do is take this organization to the next level and they need to win.”

The fact that Alonso's on the verge of breaking Strawberry's franchise homer record is not lost on the legend, who understands and even welcomes the change in ownership of such a long-standing franchise record because of what it says about his own legacy.

“He is going to break it and somebody is going to break his. That’s just the way it goes in sports,” Strawberry told MLB.com's Bill Ladson. “If I had a record that long, it means I accomplished something. … When he does break it, it’s a big congratulations, just like when David Wright broke my RBI record. It’s a big congratulations to those younger players that came along and had great success with the same franchise.”

Alonso is just 27 homers away from Strawberry's mark of 252, set during a eight-year Mets career that wrapped in 1990.

But despite the accolades that come with individual achievements and records, Strawberry was insistent that the larger focus for this year's roster needs to be on the World Series, due to the length of the title drought.

"The Mets have a chance to make history for themselves. It has been too long," the legend proclaimed. "We were in the National League Championship Series and we lost."

Strawberry himself had a chance to compete for a second championship while with the Mets, but the 1988 Dodgers outlasted New York and advanced to the World Series in a seven-game series, something which still seems to bother the franchise legend today.

Alonso knows that feeling, with the Mets having lost last season's NLCS to the Dodgers, who went on to win the World Series just like in 1988. In that six-game series, the first baseman hit .273 with a home run; his performance mirrors the 1988 NLCS production of Strawberry, who hit .300 with six RBI off of a Dodgers rotation led by legend Orel Hershiser.

Optimistically, Strawberry admitted that Alonso handled the pressure of playing in New York and for such a legendary organization well, expressing confidence that the slugger could perform under the bright lights of MLB's largest market.

"New York is the toughest place to play. To be able to play under that kind of expectation and perform at the highest level in a particular place like New York City, you have arrived as a player," Strawberry said. "A lot of players won’t play there because of the pressure, media and everything that you have to deal with. But Pete has done that."

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