Just when you were worried the Winter Meetings were going to peter out a bit after the Phillies re-signed Kyle Schwarber and the Dodgers snatched up Edwin Díaz … the Orioles made perhaps the most stunning move of the offseason so far.
The O’s, eager for a right-handed power bat, agreed to a five-year, $155 million deal (per a source) with the Mets’ all-time leading home run hitter, ending his time in Flushing and showing just how urgently the Orioles are trying to get the bad taste of this past season out of their collective mouths.
Here are five key takeaways from Pete Alonso heading to Baltimore.
1. This era of Mets baseball is officially over
Remember last offseason, when the last time we’d seen Alonso was him hitting the most clutch homer of his career against the Brewers in the NL Wild Card Series, and most people couldn’t fathom seeing him in a non-Mets jersey? Now that Alonso actually will be donning another team’s uniform next year, it feels considerably less shocking this time around.
That’s partly because the Mets ended this past season in a decidedly less pleasant fashion, but perhaps more because this team really does feel like it’s ready to pivot to the next generation of players, given the trade of Brandon Nimmo and the previous day’s departure of Edwin Díaz.
The 2025 Mets broke in three top starting pitching prospects (Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong), and on the position player side, they’ve got infielder/outfielder Jett Williams, outfielder Carson Benge and (most pointedly for this particular conversation) first baseman Ryan Clifford among those on the way up.
A year ago, it was hard to imagine the Mets surviving without Alonso in the middle of their lineup. Now? It’s hard to imagine them finding a spot for him for the next five years. In that way, a deal that Alonso immediately opted out of may have been the ideal scenario.
2. The O’s aren’t messing around
The biggest fear among Orioles fans when they traded right-hander Grayson Rodriguez for veteran outfielder Taylor Ward was that, coming off such a disappointing season, that would be that. Would this team address its pitching deficit? Would it seize the moment and do what needed to be done? That shouldn’t be a worry now.
The sizeable investment in Alonso is a sign that the Orioles brass understands that they have to win, and they have to win right now. It’s also a sign that they’re willing to — at last — start spending some real money around that homegrown core. And the best part is: They’re surely not done.
The Orioles still have that need for pitching, a big need all told, and you don’t spend money like this for Alonso without being willing to invest some more in the rotation. The Orioles aren’t sitting this winter out like some fans feared they might. That has to be a huge relief.
3. The Red Sox need to pivot
The team, other than the Orioles (and the Mets), that was most connected to Alonso this Hot Stove season was undeniably the Red Sox, who need a veteran power bat in the same way that the Orioles do (or did, anyway).
You can maybe understand why the Red Sox were hesitant to give Alonso as long-term and as large a contract as the Orioles did, but that doesn’t change that they still need that power bat. After missing out on Alonso and Kyle Schwarber, there aren’t that many of those left. Alex Bregman could always be a possibility to return, though he doesn’t quite have the power that those two do. They could look into a trade, though most of the guys on the market seem to be more of the “professional hitter” mode than the power hitter one (Ketel Marte and Brendan Donovan, for example).
The Red Sox need more offense, and a division rival just got one of the few guys on the board who would have undeniably given them some.
4. Elite power is at a premium
It wasn’t long ago that guys like Alonso and Schwarber were valued rather cheaply by the market. We’re talking about power hitters who don’t really do a whole lot of anything else, who are strong but also slow and strike out a lot and don’t give you much (or anything) on defense. You could get guys like, say, Josh Bell or Carlos Santana or Rhys Hoskins on short-term, fairly low-cost deals.
Now, Schwarber and Alonso are obviously better hitters than those guys. But they’re now getting paid like they’re shortstops, like players who give you all kinds of things rather than that just that one big thing. On one hand, that’s a risk: These aren’t the sort of players who always age that well. (Ask the Orioles about Chris Davis, whose deal may have been the one that put these sort of contracts out of style for a while.) But on the other hand, it shows how rare power like theirs has become … and how much you have to pay for it.
5. It’s hard for anyone to stay with one team anymore
This October, we saw Clayton Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer and the all-time leader in bWAR for the Dodgers franchise, retire after spending all 18 years of his career in Los Angeles. One of the factors that was so affecting about it was how rare it truly is to see one guy spend his entire career with one team anymore. Alonso, again, the all-time leading home run hitter for the Mets, felt like he could theoretically do it, but now we know he won’t. The top active players for seasons with their current team, and only with their current team, are:
Mike Trout, Angels: 15 seasons
Jose Altuve, Astros: 15 seasons
Salvador Perez, Royals: 15 seasons
José Ramírez, Guardians: 13 seasons
Are all those players going to stay with their teams with the rest of their careers? Are you sure? Because we would have said that about Alonso not long ago too. That it is so rare is why it should be so appreciated.
Alonso had a great run in Flushing. But, increasingly, it always feels like a time must come to leave.
