Mets' Pete Alonso cried at locker after Chili Davis firing: 'It just doesn't make sense'

An emotional Pete Alonso spoke before Tuesday's game about the firings of Mets hitting coach Chili Davis and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater.

"I'm gonna be completely honest," Alonso told reporters via Zoom. "So I found out on Twitter while I was eating my postgame meal and I talked to Zack (Scott), our GM. It was a professional talk. Then I gave (Slater) and (Davis) two big old hugs and I cried at my locker for a little bit."

To replace Davis and Slater, the Mets promoted minor league director of hitting development Hugh Quattlebaum to hitting coach and director of player development Kevin Howard to assistant hitting coach.

And while Alonso said he will be welcoming to Quattlebaum and Howard, he explained that the moves caught the team off guard.

"The performance of our offense over the past two years -- 2019, 2020 -- you had guys do some really special things in the game of baseball," Alonso said. "Guys are All-Stars, guys have broken records. Our team has broken records, our organizational records. We've done a lot of great things and it's confusing for me. I respect everybody who made that decision, but to me it just doesn't make sense right now. 

"But I know that the guys coming in, they're great minds, they're great people. And I know that people who are in charge in the office, I know that they want to win. Everybody wants to win. I guess from a results standpoint, from two and a half years, the results have been there. It still doesn't make sense. They're great guys, but I'm more perplexed because of the actual results that they've been able to provide for the team."

Referring to Davis as "Uncle Chili" and Slater as "Uncle Slate" Alonso said the "personal connection was there" and blamed the Mets' poor offensive start this season on the disruptive schedule they've had to deal with early on.

"It's been a whatever start, but I think that's just a product of the stop and start and the nature of the season," Alonso said. "I think that the way that things are going right now, I think we have a lot of good sauce going, we have a lot of momentum. ... It sucks losing them, but we're gaining two great baseball minds."

Discussing a team meeting that took place with management earlier Tuesday in the wake of the firings, Alonso was brief, saying "They know how we feel." (Alonso also didn't want to comment when asked about the team choosing to joke about Donnie Stevenson over the past week.) 

Speaking on Monday night, Scott said the decision to move on from Davis and Slater had to do more with the team's philosophy moving forward than anything.

"It was an explanation that still doesn't make sense to me right now," Alonso said about the reasoning offered to the players for the change. "The explanation I got is the same explanation that you guys got yesterday when you talked to Zack, our GM, in the media. Today we had a meeting, he elaborated a little bit more about it. ... I'm hoping three months from now I'm still not looking for answers for that question. I'm hoping that the answer comes clear."