Yet from the moment Alonso’s No. 25 Baltimore Orioles jersey was draped around his shoulders in his Charm City introduction Dec. 12, it suddenly made a lot more sense.
The Mets’ franchise leader in home runs was, in this winter of high-stakes bidding, an afterthought, likely identified as part of the change that had to occur after a four-month teamwide collapse.
In Baltimore, after agreeing to a five-year, $155 million contract that will pay him the highest salary in club history, he’s a savior.
“I’ve gotten hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of emails from people telling me how great this is,” says Orioles owner David Rubenstein, the 76-year-old son of Baltimore. “I can’t exaggerate how much the excitement is in Baltimore for this.
“People I didn’t even remember, from sixth grade sending me emails. I’m really happy for Baltimore, for Pete and his family.”
In New York, Alonso practically had to beg for a job the past two winters, signing a short-term deal with an opt out in February when his first foray into free agency resulted in insufficient offers – and no real inclination from his own team to retain him, at least not until a summit meeting with owner Steve Cohen just before spring training.
In Baltimore, the billboards along I-95 and down Russell Street trumpet the most significant free agent signing in franchise history: Polar Pete Is Here!
And Alonso, a man who may very well be halfway to Cooperstown, is, rather than trying to fight for scraps that $765 million man Juan Soto left behind in the team bank account, drawing comparisons to another Hall of Famer: Frank Robinson, whose trade from Cincinnati to Baltimore before the 1966 season preceded the young Orioles’ stunning defeat of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
Pressure? Heck, Rubenstein, a high schooler when those Orioles won it all, isn’t paying Alonso $31 million over five seasons to shirk from comparisons, crazy that they may be.
“Frank Robinson’s number when he played in Cincinnati was 20. Pete Alonso’s number in New York was 20,” says Rubenstein. “Both of them 30 (years old), both of them great power hitters, both with the ability to work with young hitters.
“We’re very optimistic Pete’s addition is going to be as helpful to us as Frank Robinson’s in 1966.”
Yep, those are the expectations Alonso faces, even if they don’t land like they do in New York, with the massive media presence and the stakes constantly raised by hedge fund kingpin Cohen.
Yet what kind of destination is Citi Field now, after the Mets’ very conscious choice to ghost Alonso, let closer Edwin Diaz walk to the World Series champion Dodgers and trade Brandon Nimmo?
Of course there’s time for the Mets to rally this winter. Yet it was startling to see a black-and-orange fiesta in the shadow of Eutaw Street hailing Alonso’s arrival, just a few Acela stops but many more symbolic miles away from Queens.
It culminates something of an 18-month gut punch for Alonso, who since the moment his 2024 Mets were eliminated in Game 6 of the NLCS by the Dodgers has had a few life changes: A home flooded by Hurricane Helene, a first dip into free agency where he crawled back to the Mets for a $54 million guarantee and a very important opt-out, and the birth of he and wife Haley’s first child, Teddy.
A rough spin cycle? Sure, but don’t think Alonso is as emo about his professional breakup as Mets fans.
He’s freaking thrilled.
“Every offseason, it’s interesting because as you step into free agency, it’s, ‘All right, let’s see what happens.’ Whatever unfolds, you have to make the best of the situation,” he says. “Last year, I felt like, it was still a great situation. But this year, ultimately, this has just been such a tremendous process.
“The way that it happened, it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. I can’t express enough gratitude and appreciation for how this has been and want to hit the fast-forward button for when spring training begins in February.
‘This season is going to be great. Not just this one but for as long as I’m here.”
How did seven seasons in Queens dissolve into a Charm City romance?
How Pete Alonso landed in Baltimore
Scott Boras is usually the one playing offense.
Baseball’s most successful agent is renowned for his exhaustive presentations to clubs, touting his blue chip free agents with binders and power points and the panache only he can provide.
Yet when Alonso made the drive from his Tampa home to Orlando and Boras and his crew squired him through a service elevator and to the suite level of this week’s winter meetings, the Orioles turned the tables on them.
A charm offensive, if you’ll allow it.
The secret weapon? Newly hired manager Craig Albernaz, who floored Boras and Alonso with his passion and vision for how his clubhouse will run and what to expect under his tutelage – all delivered in Albernaz’s mile-a-minute southern Massachusetts dialect.
After the meeting, Boras pulled aside Orioles club president Mike Elias and simply said, “’Something’s happened here. I’ve been in many of these meetings and something happened here.’
“He did a remarkable job of making someone in a room understand how that would be if he played here. It’s a very hard thing to do but it says a lot about communication skills. Where I felt the player and the organization felt, we can have execution, we can have greatness.
“I give credit to the acquisition of a new manager in this situation and his abilities, and I think it says a lot about what’s going to happen here.”
Albernaz laid out for Alonso his baseball philosophies borne of stints in Tampa Bay and San Francisco and in Cleveland, where he was No. 2 in the Guardians dugout behind two-time Manager of the Year Stephen Vogt.
In the dead of winter, in a sterile hotel suite, it was a pointed bit of ball talk.
“Craig just did an unbelievable job outlining not only his managing style, but overall baseball philosophies,” says Alonso. “That’s going to be the guy (guiding) the ship. He has just a general passion, appetite for the game and I’m just so excited.
“I feel like this is going to be the type of situation where we get closer over time and by the regular season, everybody’s going to want to run through a wall for each other.”
That, too, is where Alonso comes in. The Orioles won 101 games in 2023 and again qualified for the playoffs in 2024. But it’s been a season and a half of collective regression, resulting in manager Brandon Hyde’s May firing amid a 75-87 season.
Through it all, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday felt a leadership void, or at least were not capable of filling that bill themselves.
Three of those guys have Boras Corp. backpacks stashed in their locker. And the agent’s phone blew up when word of Alonso’s signing spread, particularly given the franchise’s aversion to mega-deals.
“Having calls from Jackson and Gunnar and Westy after this was done, the light it shines on how the players in the locker room feel about the commitment to how they can compete in really one of the toughest divisions in baseball – that comes organically,” says Boras. “The minute it’s done, it has that immediate impact. The excitement. It gives them a sense of pride and confidence that illustrates that this franchise is committed.”
Alonso, who debuted in 2019, played through several eras with the Mets, many of them marked by dysfunction. Yet since Francisco Lindor’s signing in 2021, Alonso has been a voice, but perhaps not the voice, in the Mets’ clubhouse as veterans such as Max Scherzer and Starling Marte and Jesse Winker came and went.
Now, Alonso, 31, is the senior position player in the clubhouse. And his play-at-all-costs ethos – he’s posted for all 162 games the past two seasons – already brings a level of credibility.
Alonso believes he can make a difference cashing in some of that equity.
“There’s a lot of talent. A lot of young talent,” he says. “And I feel like I’m going to help this team achieve greatness. I want to be an open book, to everyone in the clubhouse. I take pride in that.
“Not only do I love performing, but ultimately, I love forging great relationships and being a great teammate and I want to help however I can.
“I’m all in.”
‘You’re absolutely going to crush this place’
Alonso won’t have to fast-forward too much: Spring training begins in two months. In a sense, he already feels like he has the keys to the castle: The Orioles laid out what he calls “their entire blueprint” during their sales pitch.
The half-billion dollars in renovations to Camden Yards. The significant upgrades coming to their Sarasota spring-training complex, about an hour from Alonso’s Tampa home. And most important, how his big bat would fit into their lineup and ballpark.
That part might be most enticing. Alonso hit at least 40 home runs in three of his six full seasons with the Mets, and his 264 career home runs trail only Aaron Judge (285) and Kyle Schwarber (268) since 2019.
Like Schwarber, he’s seemingly getting better with age. Alonso credits what he calls a “deeper dive” into his performance over the last offseason, including a foray into biometrics and how his body best moves, with his 2025 All-Star campaign: 38 home runs, 80 extra-base hits, an .871 OPS.
It is not hard to envision the Baltimore faithful taking to him very quickly. A conversation with Buck Showalter, his former manager with the Mets and the Orioles’ skipper from 2010-2018, cemented those feelings.
“He said, this is a no-doubt, hands-down baseball environment,” Alonso said of Showalter. “He said, ‘Pete, you’re absolutely going to crush this place.’
“Buck’s one of my all-time favorites and he had nothing but good things to say.”
Alonso has already crushed New York. He hit 53 homers as a rookie in 2019, hit one of the most dramatic home runs in recent franchise history – a ninth-inning blast off now-Mets closer Devin Williams to win Game 3 of the 2024 wild card series at Milwaukee – and endeared himself to the masses.
He’d toss in the occasional swear word to elevate “Let’s Go, Mets” to the saltier hashtag #LFGM. Big production, undeniable lore.
And still, silence from Mets club president David Stearns.
The Orioles pounced on the opening, and possibly remade their franchise in one fell swoop. As the last of the sunlight flickered out of Camden Yards and Alonso and the Boras Posse prepared to high-tail it to the airport, Rubenstein and Boras chatted quietly in the cold air of Eutaw Street.
Baltimore is a player now, and the notion of an expanded relationship with the uber agent and the owner, a couple 70-somethings looking for another hurrah, was suddenly not something to laugh at.
No, Alonso is an Oriole, and two markets might never be the same. He knows he certainly won’t be.
“The past year and a half, you have trials and tribulations. But there’s moments, like this one, where you’re overcome with joy,” he says. “It justifies the hard work, justifies the sacrifice. It’s really galvanizing. It’s really energizing.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing in New York. I’m very gracious for that opportunity. There’s some amazing people over there, whether in the locker room, the staff, clubbies – it’s phenomenal.
“But this organization, this city – I’m so proud to call home.”