There have been way too many bench-clearing moments on the diamond. One wrong move and both dugouts flood the field, followed by ejections. Just look at the Washington Nationals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game, where Nationals pitcher Jorge Lopez was ejected back in April. However, not everyone is a fan of it. And this hitter for the New York Mets is one of them, as made explicit during the All-Star Game 2025. The 30-year-old isn’t just complaining about the rules. He is also coming up with a novel idea that might change how baseball deals with it. The idea comes from the NHL. And it might change the whole scenario of how chaotic it becomes when two players dispute turns into a 50-man rugby scrum.

Pete Alonso, the New York Mets’ first baseman, is one who has never been afraid to speak his thoughts. In a candid conversation, he was asked what one rule he would change about baseball. The Polar Bear revealed a surprise that would make Don Cherry proud. Alonso said, “If there’s one rule I could change, I don’t think people should get ejected after charging the mound or fighting. So I think it should be hockey style. No teams, no nothing, because that’s when people can like seriously get hurt.”

He has a clear plan for how this will work. “If you go out and charge the mound, then you should be able to, but if the pitcher or hitter or whoever charges, if they don’t want to fight, they take a knee and then they don’t have to fight. But if someone charges the mound, it’s one v. one, hockey style, and then that’s it.”

To see why Alonso suggested that, let’s look at how hockey addresses the on-field fights. In the NHL, when tensions run high, players often remove their gloves to fight for position or pride. It’s an unspoken rule: helmets stay on, no hits to the head, and teams stay back. When someone goes down or it stops naturally, both people serve penalty time, and it’s finished. This stops deadly pile-ups and the involvement of whole teams.

In MLB, the situation can get chaotic. Players often rush out of the dugouts and bullpens, leading to dangerous confrontations that can escalate into physical altercations. As a result, several players have faced ejections or suspensions from crucial games.

Alonso knows this kind of chaos very well. Remember the brawl between the Mets and Cardinals in 2022? Things got out of hand when there were a lot of hit-by-pitch incidents involving Alonso, too. That led to a bench-clearing incident involving Yoan López and Nolan Arenado.

Alonso wants to change the rules about fighting in baseball. While that’s that, he can also face a change off the field, and that is his future with the New York Mets.

Pitching a fight and a future, Polar Bear at the crossroads

Pete Alonso isn’t just having trouble on the field; he’s also dealing with a lot of uncertainty off the field. He added recently, “I mean if it works out, you know, it would be really special to (stay with the Mets)… But again, there’s a lot of things that happen business-wise and a lot of unpredictable things that happen in free agency.”

That statement comes in the middle of Alonso’s new two-year, $54 million contract with the Mets. The deal includes a $10 million signing bonus and a $20 million salary this season. And it will go up to $24 million in 2026. The slugger has both power and worry with one year left.

So far, Alonso’s play has been in line with that planned way of thinking. He has a .252 batting average, 247 career home runs, and 663 RBIs. And this season, he is also hitting hard. He has a .280 batting average, 21 homers, 77 RBIs, and an OPS of .908. Not only this, but along with his Soto and Lindor, this trio is unbeatable for the Mets.

Alonso, on the other hand, left the door open: “Yeah, this time around, like last year, there’s no guarantee … we’ll see what happens business-wise, nothing’s guaranteed.” That open-ended view indicates that he’s just as ready for the bullpen drama as he is for bench-clearing battles.