Pete Sixteen (And Seventeen)
Pete Alonso (NYM): 3-6, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI.
A sweet sixteen party wasn’t good enough for Pete Alonso on Sunday, as he crushed both his 16th and 17th homers in Coors against the pitiful Rockies, scoring a final line of 3-6, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI. His second homer of the day was his 243rd, passing David Wright for sole possession of No. 2 in the Mets’ all-time home run list. Given his recent form, Alonso might pass Darryl Strawberry and his 252 homers by the end of June.
Most multi-HR games in Mets history:Pete Alonso: 23Darryl Strawberry: 22David Wright: 21
Alonso spent most of May on a 16-game homerless streak, but all that changed on May 25. Since that day, he has hit eight home runs in 14 games. His Statcast numbers are almost career-bests across the board, including his best-ever Hard-Hit rate (54.8%), Barrel rate (20.4%), and average EV (94.7 mph). PLV recognizes Alonso’s elite level in 2025, as his Process+ (141) is third-best in the league behind only Aaron Judge (145) and Shohei Ohtani (144). He now has the league lead in RBIs with 61, and is slashing .301/.396/.594 in 2025. And yes, his BA is legit (.314 xBA), so it looks like his low AVG seasons are a thing of the past.
Hindsight is 50/50, but Alonso was the fifth 1B taken in 2025 fantasy drafts on every major fantasy platform, according to FantasyPros ADP. Managers who used a late third or early fourth rounder on Alonso are laughing their way to the top of their leagues. Hopefully, he can keep it up for the entire season and sneak into the first round in 2026 fantasy drafts.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Sunday:
Jeff McNeil (NYM): 3-5, 2B, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI.
Jeff McNeil almost matched Pete Alonso’s day stat for stat, hitting two homers in the game and three in his last two games. Those three are also 50% of his season’s homers. And they all happened at Coors. And his average EV is still 86.3 mph, about where it’s been for the last three seasons. Move on and let the die-hard Mets fan in your league pick him up instead.
Aaron Judge (NYY): 3-4, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI, BB.
It’s been almost a week without a Judgian blast, and Aaron Judge must have been tired of looking at the HR standings. Judge took advantage of a Cal Raleigh night off to swat two homers Sunday night against Boston, his 22nd and 23rd of the season, and is now only three off the lead, tied with Shohei Ohtani. His .771 SLG would be the seventh-highest slugging percentage of all time, with Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth sharing Nos. 1 through 6. It’s been that kind of MVP season for Judge.
Bo Naylor (CLE): 3-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Bo Naylor was a sleeper pick in a catcher wasteland going into the 2024 season. Not only did Naylor not break out last season, but the catcher position got significantly better, especially in 2025, with breakouts left and right, such as Iván Herrera, Logan O’Hoppe, and Hunter Goodman. Meanwhile, Naylor’s BA and xBA are the same in 2025 … he’s hitting .187, and his xBA is in the bottom 1% of the league. At least he’s got a little pop in his bat, as he hit his eighth homer of the season on Sunday.
Evan Carter (TEX): 3-4, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI.
After a hot career start at the end of the 2023 season, almost the entire industry was in on Evan Carter, labeling him as one of the next young stars in the league. Unfortunately, he had a disastrous 2024 season, marred by a back injury that put his career trajectory in question. Carter was an afterthought in drafts this year, and while he’s been better than 2024, he’s still struggling and just came off the IL after recovering from a quad injury. Any big game is encouraging right now for Carter, and a 3-for-4 day with a homer and a double in his fifth game back from the IL is especially encouraging. The 22-year-old still has a long way to go to prove he belongs on MLB and fantasy rosters.
Miguel Vargas (CHW): 1-3, HR, R, 3 RBI, BB.
Miguel Vargas finally hit a June homer after hitting all seven of his season’s home runs during his May hot streak. Even with the recent cold streak, Vargas is living his best MLB life on the Southside, but fantasy owners are still wary of his success. He’s only 36% rostered on Yahoo, down 13%. Process+ still believes he has fantasy value, even if the fantasy community has jumped ship.
Matt McLain (CIN): 2-3, HR, R, 2 RBI.
Similar to Evan Carter, Matt McLain had a hot start to his career in 2023, though an oblique injury ended his season early. He then missed the entire 2024 season due to a left shoulder injury. He’s finally back in 2025 and hasn’t found his rhythm at the plate yet, which isn’t surprising for a player missing that much time from serious injuries, including also spending some time on the IL earlier in 2025 for a hamstring injury. McLain smacked a go-ahead home run on Sunday for the Reds, his eighth of the season. Underneath the hood, there are still indications that McLain can pull together a strong second half, as his 44.2% Hard-Hit rate is slightly higher than his 42.4% rate in 2023, and his walk rate is 10.7% compared to 7.7%. He does need to cut down his K%, which is north of 30%. McLain is someone I’m looking to stash on my bench rather than leaving him out on the waiver wire.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand (CIN): 2-3, HR, R, RBI, BB.
CES is back with a vengeance, and the man cannot stop hitting homers! That’s three straight games with a dinger since he came off the IL on Friday. We’ve seen what a healthy CES can do in 2023 — wow, is there a theme to my Batter’s Box article today? Grab him off the wire, start him while he’s hot, and hope doesn’t fizzle out like some of the other Reds’ waiver wire darlings from this year. Yes, I’m looking at you, Noelvi Marte and Will Benson!
Taylor Ward (LAA): 1-3, HR, R, 2 RBI.
Taylor Ward has cooled down since his mid-May home run barrage, but he’s still smacking dingers, hitting his 3rd in eight games. He’s now up to 18 HR on the season, just like we all predicted. Ward is struggling in the AVG and OBP department, but as long as he’s going yard and hitting the ball hard (46.3% HardHit rate), we can forgive him for that. While many might predict Ward’s season trending towards a second-half crash, PLV’s Process+ is a fan, and you should be one too. He’s still a buy in my book.
Yandy Díaz (TBR): 3-4, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI.
Yandy hit a homer and a double in the early game against the Marlins on Sunday, though he is frankly having an underwhelming 2025 season so far. He’s not barreling the ball as much as he did in 2023 when he hit 22 HR (9.5%) — yes, there’s that 2023 theme again — but he’s oh so close at 8.9%, which is an improvement on his 7.6% in his disappointing 14-HR 2024 season. We all know Diaz hits the ball extremely hard — he just needs to make sure to keep barrelling the ball to stay fantasy relevant. He’s up to nine homers in 2025 so far, and he should get close to the 22 he hit in 2023. His value, however, has taken a hit in OBP formats, where he is usually the most valuable in fantasy. His current OBP is a shocking .297, and it follows a disturbing trend of a dropping walk rate over the last four seasons, falling from 14% in 2022 to 10.8% in 2023, 8.1% in 2023, and 6.6% this season.
