Mets' Pete Alonso: MLB Manipulating Baseballs a Bigger Concern Than Pitchers

New York Mets star Pete Alonso had a different take about the ongoing story about pitchers possibly using foreign substances during games. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Alonso thinks Major League Baseball's decision to change the balls is a bigger issue than anything pitchers are doing. 

"I don't care what they use," Alonso said when asked about pitchers using sticky substances. "The biggest concern is MLB manipulates the baseballs year in and year out depending on the free agency class."

The subject of pitchers doctoring baseballs returned to the news cycle on Tuesday night when New York Yankees star Gerrit Cole avoided answering a question about whether or not he has used anything. 

"I don't know ... I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest," Cole told reporters.  

Cole's comment came in the wake of ESPN's Buster Olney reporting last week that MLB is going to start instructing umpires to check pitchers "repeatedly and randomly for foreign substances" during games amid an increase in strikeouts and decline in offensive performance. 

Leading up to spring training, MLB issued a memo to all 30 teams stating it was altering the baseball for the 2021 season. 

Per the memo, an independent lab found the new balls "will fly one to two feet shorter on balls hit over 375 feet."

The changes came after teams set a new MLB record with 6,776 homers during the 2019 season. The previous record of 6,105 home runs was set in 2017.

Through the first two months of this season, the collective batting average of .237 for all 30 teams is tied with 1968 for the worst in MLB history. The 8.98 strikeouts per game is on pace to be the most in history.