Pete Alonso has been everything the Orioles could have wanted - and, in a season tilting toward disappointment, that may end up being the cruelest part.
Tuesday night offered the cleanest snapshot yet. Alonso stepped in, delivered a game-tying blast for his 300th career home run, and helped turn an Orioles loss into a win.
Coby Mayo’s inside-the-park home run in extra innings joined it in the mix, but Alonso’s swing was the one that landed like a marker on the season. Unless Baltimore somehow reaches the playoffs, those two plays will sit on the shelf of what might have been.
That’s the part Orioles fans are left with now: a player doing exactly what he was brought here to do, and a team that may have nothing to show for it.
Alonso’s numbers say he’s still one of the best hitters in the sport. He finished Wednesday 14th among qualified hitters in OPS at .864, ninth in weighted runs created plus at 142 and ninth in home runs with 37.
His 102 RBIs lead the American League. Since he recalibrated his life to being both a baseball player and a dad at the beginning of May, he’s been even better - fifth in wRC+ at 155, fourth in homers with 33 and seventh in OPS at .913.
That kind of production is exactly why Mets fans spent seven years getting attached to him at Citi Field, and why some of them were furious when the front office let him walk to Baltimore. Alonso has a way of making both camps right: he shows up, and he delivers.
For the Orioles, that was supposed to mean more than just home runs. He was signed to add thump, protect the young core and help change the tone in the clubhouse.
On the first and third fronts, he’s done his job. On the second, there’s only so much he can do.
Gunnar Henderson isn’t getting the pitches to hit because he’s swinging at pitches he can’t.
And Henderson hasn’t been the only issue. After a 2025 season in which several homegrown Orioles underperformed but had injuries and underlying problems that made it easier to believe a rebound was coming, many of them have again failed to take the next step. That has left Alonso and whichever third baseman is on the other side of the diamond that night - Mayo, Blaze Alexander or Christian Encarnacion-Strand - to shoulder the offense.
Alonso won’t make excuses. This is the job he signed up for, and it’s also the kind of place he said he wanted to be. He came for the contract, sure, but also for what Baltimore said it was building.
So far, he’s the only one who has fully met the terms.
By FanGraphs’ win probability added metric, Alonso ranks fifth among qualifying hitters at 3.18. Among the positive side of that leaderboard, he’s third, behind only presumptive MVPs Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Alvarez. The only other qualifying Orioles hitter on that list is Henderson, and he sits at -1.04 WPA.
The value has been real, too. Using FanGraphs’ dollar-wins above replacement conversion, Alonso’s season would be worth $34.2 million on the free-agent market. His signing bonus and salary combined for 2026 come to $31 million.
There’s always risk when a club commits that kind of money to a slugger in his 30s. Alonso has tried to stay ahead of the aging curve by changing his offseason training over the last few years, and the results have held up. The gains in his quality of contact that showed up in 2025 haven’t looked like they’re fading.
That matters, because if this ever does start to slip, the warning signs may come fast. And if Alonso isn’t this player for the full Orioles run, the disappointment will be hard to ignore.
For now, though, there’s no mystery. He is worth every penny.
He is giving Baltimore more than it could have asked for. And with nine games left, the Orioles need near-perfect baseball and a lot of help if they’re going to avoid wasting it all.
In Other News...
Orioles Suddenly Have Surprise Contributors They Cant Easily Ignore
A few unexpected names have started to make the Orioles roster picture a little more complicated. Josh Walker has given Baltimore useful innings out of the bullpen, Alex Hoppe has turned heads on the right side of the staff, and Coby Mayo has added another layer to the clubs list of players forcing their way into the conversation as the season goes on.
Luis De Len is part of that same group of surprise contributors, and his work has made the Orioles think more carefully about how he fits going forward. Craig Albernaz has pointed to those kinds of developments as part of the larger point of player growth, with Baltimore now weighing not just who has helped in the moment but who deserves a longer look when the team keeps sorting out roles. [Read more 🡒]
Gunnar Henderson Has Become A Bigger Orioles Problem Than Fans Expected
Gunnar Henderson arrived in Baltimore looking like the rare young star who could anchor a contender for years, and for a while he looked every bit the part. After winning American League Rookie of the Year and reaching All-Star status in his first two full MLB seasons, he seemed to be the kind of everyday force the Orioles could build around as the lineup matured behind him.
Instead, his production has slipped in 2025 and again in 2026, with key offensive numbers trending the wrong way and his overall value dropping with them. For a team that has watched its playoff hopes fade in recent seasons, Hendersons decline has added a frustrating layer to the bigger picture, because the Orioles are no longer just waiting on team-wide improvement. They are waiting for one of their most important players to look like himself again. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Front Office Shakeup Could Signal More Changes Ahead
The Orioles appear to be in the middle of a quiet front-office reset, with assistant general manager Sig Mejdal reportedly moving out of his longtime role overseeing the analytics department and into a new job centered on emerging technologies and innovative practices in baseball operations. It is a notable shift for an organization that has leaned heavily into data and process under its current leadership, even if the team has not confirmed the change.
Matt Bloods departure adds another layer to the uncertainty, especially because it has not been officially announced either. For a club that has built a reputation for staying ahead of the curve, any movement involving key voices in the front office naturally invites questions about how the Orioles want that structure to look going forward and whether more changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]