For New York Mets fans, losing first baseman Pete Alonso hurt. Alonso was productive, fan-friendly and fun to watch, and players like that are especially beloved in New York.
But the player the Mets signed to replace Alonso is special, too. Former Seattle Mariner second baseman Jorge Polanco set a big-league record by solving a performance problem that most players can’t get past, and it’s well worth looking into what it was and how he did it.
Polanco was striking out a lot, which isn’t exactly a unique problem in baseball these days. In dropping his strikeout percentage from 29.2 to 15.6, though, he set a record for the largest percentage drop by any big league players, according to Mike Petriello of MLB com via Tim Boyle of Rising Apple.
The more conventional version of these percentage numbers are from 2024, when Polanco hit just .213 with 137 strikeouts. Given that he’s 32, stats like that usually represent the beginning of the end for most players.
But Polanco lowers his strikeout number to 82, and he did it while posting more than 500 plate appearances. As Petriello proved with his research, that’s a pretty epic drop.
How did he do it? Boyle cited a change in his stance early last season, along with a flatter swing and an a change in attack angle, and the combination that turned him into a different player.
The other issue that’s plagued Polanco is health, which is where this signing becomes slightly scary. He’s had issues with knee injuries, and the Mariners responded by giving him some at-bats at DH to keep Polanco fresh and healthy.
The Mets will add a new component to that formula by playing him at first instead of second. They already know Polanco has the versatility to handle this, so the hope is that shifting him to first will keep him healthy over the course of his two-year, $40 million deal. They’re also hoping his range will be better than that of Alonso, who was basically a defensive statue at first.
It’s a calculated risk, but Polanco clearly represents the kind of player GM David Stearns values as he continues his roster makeover. Polanco is tough, versatile and adaptable, and the Mets as a whole were the opposite of those things during their second-half-collapse.
We won’t know whether any of this will work until the Mets take the field, but Stearns decided that staying the course and expecting different results was the baseball version of insanity, which makes sense for anyone who watched the brand of baseball the Mets put on the fielding in late July, August and September.