Pete Alonso raised some eyebrows on Wednesday when he was asked about baseball’s sticky substance problem, instead pointing the finger at Major League Baseball and suggesting that the league adjusts the makeup of the baseball each season depending on the free agent classes that year.
"The biggest concern is MLB manipulates the baseball year in and year out depending on free agency class, or guys being in an advanced part of their arbitration," Alonso said.
Alonso’s claim garnered some support from former players, like Will Middlebrooks, but Mets general manager Zack Scott isn’t in Alonso’s corner, telling reporters on Friday that he didn’t buy Alonso’s theory.
“I didn’t know Pete was a conspiracy theorist,” Alonso said, per Newsday.
The upcoming CBA will certainly be tense among players an owners, as Alonso’s claim is just one of many frustrations that players have with the current league structure. The ball itself has been a big topic of conversation in recent years, with pitchers speaking out in 2019 about the “juiced ball” that led to a historic home run surge, and MLB publicly said it was altering the ball prior to the start of this season in an attempt to increase balls in play and decrease home runs. Instead, the league saw historically low offensive numbers to begin the season.
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