How a series of right times, right places led Steven Negron to Pete Alonso and the Mets

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — For Steven Negron, a series of right times in the right places began at a December 2018 wedding in Tampa. He reconnected with a fellow groomsman, an old friend/rival with whom he had lost contact but on whom he had kept tabs.

Amid the marrying and merriment, they made time for brief baseball talk: What was he up to that winter? Who was he working out with?

That night, Negron became Pete Alonso’s personal defense coach. Now Negron and Alonso are co-workers of sorts.

The Mets hired Negron last fall as the defensive coordinator for their Dominican Republic complex. One of the happiest days of a mutual best friend’s life — parlayed with a skill set and mindset that the Mets valued — led to another shot at a professional baseball career for Negron, a former minor-leaguer.

“It’s crazy how baseball works,” said Negron, 26. “Everybody somehow knows each other.”

The story starts about a decade ago in Tampa. Negron, two years ahead, and Alonso played at rival high schools and were occasional teammates on the summer/travel ball circuit. When Negron left town for college, then two seasons in the Tigers’ farm system,  they didn’t keep in touch.

Negron was with the Padres as a minor-league coach in 2018 and was back in Tampa for the offseason when he saw Alonso as another buddy, Vincent Leto, got married. (Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. was the best man.)

At that point, Alonso was frustrated that the Mets didn’t call him up at the end of the 2018 season. There were questions — including from within the Mets' organization — about whether his defense at first base was good enough for him to be an everyday player.

“That was a very critical point in Pete’s career,” Negron said. “He wanted to get better defensively, he wanted to prove everybody wrong.

“I knew what was going on with him. I went up to him and I told him, ‘Are you working with anybody? What’s your offseason going to look like?’ He told me he didn’t have anybody. I told him, ‘We’re working. Let’s go.’ With Pete, as soon as you say we’re working, he’s ready to go.”

Think of it as an external supplement to the work Alonso had been doing with Tim Teufel, the Mets’ minor-league infield coordinator (as well as major-league infield coach Gary DiSarcina more recently).

It is normal for players to have personal hitting or pitching coaches, and Alonso enlisted Negron’s help for defense.

Through coaching Alonso, Negron developed a strong working relationship with Teufel, which amounted to  beneficial networking.

“I honestly think I got lucky with such a great opportunity, to have the trust of Teufel and the organization,” Negron said. “The communication all offseason was on point with Teufel and myself. I got lucky enough where Teufel was OK with a lot of the stuff I was doing. He liked the drills, he liked the energy. He gave me a huge guy at a critical point and we were able to work so well together. It was the right place at a right time.”

Again.

On the first day of spring training 2019, the start of what became Alonso’s historic rookie year, Alonso declared: “One of my buddies, Steven Negron, he’s like an infield guru . . . Him and Tim Teufel were corresponding a lot throughout my progression. It was awesome. Really productive offseason.”

Shortly thereafter, Alonso mentioned to assistant general manager Allard Baird that he should talk to Negron,  putting the freelance coach further on the Mets’ radar.

“The origin was Pete,” Baird said. “Pete said, ‘Hey, this guy really is a good infield instructor. This is a worthwhile guy to go ahead and sit down and meet with. ’ ’’

Fast-forward to the end of the 2019 season. The Mets were kinda, sorta in the playoff hunt. Alonso, playing in September for the first time, was closing in on the rookie homer record. And he was doing just fine at first base.

Negron came to visit for a series against the Dodgers at Citi Field. Baird heard he was in town and set up a last-minute meeting. Negron got a 1 a.m. text from Teufel saying Baird wanted to meet the next day.

That happened on a Friday. On Saturday, Negron met with special assistant to the GM Omar Minaya and Andrew Christie, coordinator of amateur and international scouting.

He capped the weekend with phone calls with the Mets’ Dominican staff, including Rafael Perez, who oversees the club’s international operations.

Put another way, Negron went to hang out with his friend and ended up on a series of impromptu job interviews.

Right time, right place, etc. Teufel coached him through it.

“A full weekend,” Negron said. “I was just in jeans. I was just making sure, checking on Pete, see if he’s doing OK, how he’s holding up, basically. Just one thing after the other happened to work out.”

Baird didn’t have any openings with stateside Mets affiliates, so he asked Minaya if there were any international gigs. The Mets offered Negron a job a few weeks later. He started in October, reported to the Dominican in January and is in Port St. Lucie for minor-league spring training this month. “I guess I answered the questions the right way,” he said.

Said Baird, “I love his energy. I love his passion. He has real passion for defense. He’s got a great work ethic, the right personality. He’s a players-first type of guy. He impressed me in the meeting we had. I told Omar, this is a guy to spend some time with.”

Alonso worked with Negron this past offseason, too. “He has helped me a tremendous amount,” Alonso said. “I think I surprised people in a really good way [last season] and people really liked what I showed — my process, my routine. Steven was a huge part of that along with people helping along with the Mets organization.”

Negron now is just another piece of the Mets’ player-development puzzle, working a lower-level job with the same dream as all of the players he coaches, the same dream Alonso had this time a year ago: Make it to the majors.

“I’m working for my favorite organization right now,” Negron said. “I hope my entire career is with the Mets.”

Maybe he and Alonso both.

“That,” Negron said, “would be a great story.”