Pete Alonso didn’t leave much room for debate in his first season as an Oriole. Ahead of Wednesday’s doubleheader, he was announced as the club’s Most Valuable Oriole, and the result was unanimous.
That kind of clean sweep can be rare, but this one felt about as straightforward as it gets. Alonso put together a season built on production: 40 home runs, a .265/.359/.510 batting line and 4.6 bWAR, with five games still left to play.
He also gave Baltimore more than just the bat. His first base defense has been better than advertised, and if he doesn’t win a Gold Glove, that would be an egregious snub.
There’s a little frustration baked into the whole thing, though, because Alonso’s work came in a year when so much of the roster around him couldn’t consistently hold up its end. His numbers have, in a sense, been wasted on a team that will probably be eliminated from postseason contention officially today.
Still, Alonso has brought plenty of value - and plenty of personality. He seems genuinely thrilled to be an Oriole, and his habit of ending every interview with “Let’s go O’s” has made him easy to root for.
For now, the four years left on that contract feel pretty good.
The unanimous call also put Alonso in some select company. The last unanimous winner was Cedric Mullins in 2021, the same season he broke out with a 30-homer, 30-steal campaign after giving up switch hitting.
The Orioles don’t reveal the exact vote totals or the identities of the voters, only that the ballots come from a mystery group of media members and broadcasters who cover the team. Camden Chat is not part of that group.
Each ballot includes first, second and third place choices, with points assigned to determine the winner. When the selection is unanimous, the math is easy.
The team does, however, release the list of players who picked up at least one vote. This year’s names behind Alonso were Blaze Alexander, Samuel Basallo, Shane Baz, Kyle Bradish, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Rico Garcia, Gunnar Henderson, Trevor Rogers and Brandon Young.
That list is not without its odd corners, but it’s also a lot less strange than last year, when someone voted for interim manager Tony Mansolino and another voter - or maybe the same one - went with Dylan Carlson, who finished the 2025 season as a -0.7 bWAR player. Most of the 2026 vote-getters at least had stretches that made some sense. Nobody went with Craig Albernaz or with Dylan Beavers and Leody Taveras, the two negative bWAR outfielders from this season.
A few of the names make more sense when you look at the playing time. Alexander and Encarnacion-Strand didn’t have enough of a runway to build a full case, even though they were productive when available.
Alexander missed a chunk of time after getting hit by a pitch and suffering broken bones. Encarnacion-Strand joined the organization during the season and could end up being a late bloomer in the Ryan O’Hearn mold, or he could settle into the Jeremiah Jackson category of flash in the pan.
Then there are the players whose seasons were uneven enough that the ballots needed a little more squinting. Bradish, Henderson, Rogers and Mayo all had long stretches where the numbers weren’t especially eye-catching.
Mayo is finishing strong with three excellent months. Henderson has been hitting well since about mid-August and has kept value with solid shortstop defense, even if it hasn’t been perfect.
Bradish is harder to pin down, though the extension still felt good when it happened.
My own order would put Alonso first, Young second and Rogers third. Young’s unexpectedly strong year may have been the only thing that kept the Orioles from getting buried in May or June, and the club is 19-8 in his starts.
Whoever voted for Baz clearly wasn’t holding his 10-21 team record against him. Baz probably “deserves” like 15-16 in his starts.
After Alonso and Young, the third-place spot gets messy fast, which is exactly what the vote sheet reflects. Rogers struggled through April and May before looking like a fringe Cy Young candidate ever since.
That continues the pattern from last year, when he was Cy Young-caliber over the 18 starts he made. That’s why he’d get the nod for third place here, and why he was the MVO winner a year ago.
In Other News...
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Enrique Bradfield Jr., Aron Estrada, Michael Forret, Creed Willems and Nestor German are among the names in the mix, and each brings a different kind of case. Recent performance matters, but so do ceilings, injuries and the bumps that have shaped their seasons. For a club that has built so much of its identity around stocking the pipeline, these are the kinds of decisions that can feel routine on the surface and revealing underneath. [Read more 🡒]
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Holliday was already central to whatever the Orioles hope to build moving forward, and his situation now sits alongside a few other notable injury updates. Samuel Basallo has been placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, while Tyler ONeill received a PRP injection in his shoulder as the team looks toward getting him ready for next spring. For Baltimore, it is a reminder that even in the quiet months, the roster picture can shift quickly before the new season even begins. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Front Office Move Wont Silence The Bigger Mike Elias Debate
The Orioles have added Ty Holub back into the organization, hiring him as a senior analyst in the scouting department after his time with the Mariners and a previous stint in Baltimore as a Baseball Operations Assistant. Holubs background gives the front office another voice with a track record in both scouting and player evaluation, and it fits a franchise that has spent years trying to sharpen every layer of its talent pipeline.
Still, moves like this tend to raise the larger question around Mike Elias rather than quiet it. Baltimore has steadily tried to build out its staff and improve the process behind player acquisition, and Holubs return is another piece of that effort, but the broader debate over whether the Orioles have enough impact in the front office to match their on-field ambitions is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]