ORLANDO, Fla. — Roughly 24 hours after Kyle Schwarber’s return to Philadelphia and Edwin Diaz’s deal with the Dodgers rocked the winter meetings, another titanic transaction hit the timeline Wednesday, with the reports of first baseman Pete Alonso agreeing to a five-year, $155 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles.
Last offseason, Alonso lingered on the open market for months, a sobering first journey through free agency that concluded in February with a two-year, $54 million deal to stay in Queens. Importantly, the pact featured an opt-out that enabled Alonso to hit free agency again after the 2025 season. He proceeded to have one of his best seasons as a big leaguer, helping to squander some of the doubts that surfaced about his trajectory after an underwhelming 2024 and reassert his status as one of the most reliable sluggers in the sport.
Alonso’s bounce-back made reentering the market an obvious choice, but it still wasn’t clear how eager clubs would be to invest in him, considering the unsexy nature of his profile — a right-handed-hitting first baseman in his 30s with little-to-no defensive value — hadn’t changed. While Alonso had done his part to rejuvenate his production to something more closely resembling a true star position player, whether he warranted the nine-figure commitment that he and his agent, Scott Boras, sought remained an open question.
Enter the Orioles, an intriguing club this offseason considering their lackluster showing in 2025 amidst an otherwise encouraging trajectory as a franchise over the past half-decade. Baltimore had already made two major moves to address some of the deficiencies on its roster, swinging a trade with the Angels to acquire outfielder Taylor Ward to strengthen the lineup and signing hard-throwing righty Ryan Helsley to be the new closer.
With the relatively crowded state of the O’s position-player group following the Ward acquisition, it stood to reason that Ward on his own could fulfill Baltimore’s stated goal of adding a right-handed bat to complement a lineup that leaned pretty heavily left-handed. And with two right-handed first basemen already on the roster in veteran Ryan Mountcastle and 24-year-old Coby Mayo — plus two catchers who project to rotate through the DH spot in Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo — Alonso wasn’t an obvious fit on paper for Baltimore, at least not relative to some of the other potential suitors with more glaring holes at first or DH.
Evidently, the Orioles — amidst their reported pursuits of sorely needed rotation upgrades — viewed adding Alonso as a worthwhile endeavor anyway, demonstrating a level of aggressiveness in free agency that has not been on display in Baltimore in quite some time. Although Alonso might not fit seamlessly with the current roster, he represents a definite upgrade over in-house options Mountcastle and Mayo, who now become trade chips (if they weren’t already). And rather than settling for Ward as their most prominent offensive upgrade of the offseason, the Orioles have acquired a pair of the most prolific right-handed home run hitters in baseball: Among all righty bats, only Aaron Judge (53), Eugenio Suarez (49) and Junior Caminero (45) hit more homers than Alonso (38) and Ward (36) in 2025.
For as discombobulated as things got on the mound for the Orioles in 2025, a big element of the team’s step back was that the lineup’s production did not remotely reflect the reputations and expected upward trajectories of the hitters involved. A position-player core that looked to be quickly trending toward being one of baseball’s best suddenly didn’t seem like much of a no-doubt strength outside of shortstop Gunnar Henderson. There was still plenty of talent to warrant optimism moving forward, but not many players whose production could be counted on.
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This is why a player such as Alonso, whose combination of durability and consistent power production is nearly unrivaled across the league, would appeal to a team such as Baltimore. No, paying a right-handed first baseman $31 million per year into his mid-30s is not an especially enticing proposition, but what Alonso can give Baltimore right away — a middle-of-the-order slugger whom new manager Craig Albernaz can confidently write into his lineup every day (Alonso played 162 games each of the past two seasons) — is exactly the kind of impact talent that a team with ambitions of returning to October should be chasing. And in order to secure a premium free agent’s productive, short-term present, teams often need to pay for his unflattering long-term future.
In tandem with Ward, Alonso fortifies an Orioles lineup that could be one of the AL’s deepest and most dangerous if enough of the younger core hitters can bounce back (Rutschman, Colton Cowser) or take a meaningful step forward (Jackson Holliday, Basallo, Dylan Beavers). But for as exciting of a splash as Alonso is on the offensive side, Baltimore’s prospects of being taken seriously as a contender in the AL East are largely predicated on how much the Orioles are able to improve their pitching staff between now and Opening Day.
Does Baltimore have more financial flexibility to chase a top-end free-agent arm such as Framber Valdez or Tatsuya Imai — or even the next tier with Michael King or Zac Gallen? Or will president of baseball operations Mike Elias prefer to cash in some prospect capital in a trade for an available impact arm such as MacKenzie Gore or Edward Cabrera? Whether upgrades come via free agency or trade remains to be seen, but that is the crucial work that lies ahead for Elias and his front office if they are to succeed in restoring the Orioles to legitimate contender status.
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