Pete Alonso didn’t sugarcoat Baltimore’s season after the Orioles were officially knocked out of postseason contention Thursday.
“We failed to perform and do what we were supposed to do,” Alonso said Friday, according to Jake Rill of MLB.com. “We had great moments, great individual performances, but as a whole, that's not the standard here. And that's unacceptable for us.”
Baltimore is 78-81 and sitting fourth in the AL East as the regular season winds down, but the bigger issue is the one that’s now unavoidable: no playoff berth. That comes after an offseason in which the Orioles added Alonso, Shane Baz, Ryan Helsley and Chris Bassitt to a young core built around Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday and Adley Rutschman, who was dealt to the Boston Red Sox at this year’s trade deadline.
For Alonso, the disappointment wasn’t just missing October. It was missing the chance to chase something bigger.
“The standard for us is to not only make the postseason but make a run and have a legitimate shot to hold up a trophy at the end of the year, and we didn't even give ourselves an opportunity to enter the dance in October,” Alonso added.
President of baseball operations Mike Elias and manager Craig Albernaz are both set to return in 2027, even after the club failed to reach the playoffs for a second straight year.
Alonso put the responsibility squarely on the roster.
“We need to do a better job as players because that's what it boils down to,” Alonso said. “At the end of the day, you can have all the help, all the coaching, all the information, but it's about getting it done between the lines, and collectively as a group, we didn't do that.”
On an individual level, Alonso delivered exactly what Baltimore expected when it signed him to a five-year, $155-million deal. The five-time All-Star has produced an AL-best 42 home runs, 112 RBIs and an .879 OPS in 160 games.
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With the loss, Baltimore fell to 79-82, locking in a losing season even as its final place in the AL East still depends on what the Blue Jays do the rest of the way. For an Orioles club trying to balance development and competitiveness, the lineup choice only sharpened the debate about whether this team is prioritizing the right things at the right time, and whether the growing pains are worth it when the results keep looking the same. [Read more 🡒]