BALTIMORE — After years of waiting, unfulfilled promises, and false starts, this finally looks and feels different for the Orioles.
Handing out the largest contract to an outside free agent in franchise history will have that effect, of course, but the organization hit all the right notes Friday with the exception of the suboptimal late afternoon timing of the press conference to introduce five-time All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso to Baltimore. As president of baseball operations Mike Elias noted, it was “a very momentous and historic day” for the Orioles and their fans.
On the heels of such a disappointing 2025 season, it’s better late than never.
From the Alonso billboards spotted on I-95 and the Jones Falls Expressway and the stuffed polar bear placed next to control owner David Rubenstein to Elias proclaiming “a whole new era in front of us” and the 31-year-old Alonso vowing to “help this team achieve greatness,” this was the kind of big deal that goes beyond the lucrative five-year, $155 million contract or worrying about what the last season or two of the deal might look like. The “Hell yeah!” uttered by Alonso upon putting on his Orioles cap and new No. 25 jersey for the first time might as well have come from Baltimore fans knowing one of baseball’s elite sluggers is now one of their own.
Rubenstein drawing parallels between Alonso’s signing and the club trading for future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson prior to the 1966 season could have easily come across as corny, but the comparison landed appropriately for anyone daring to dream about the Orioles winning their first World Series in more than four decades. That Alonso himself — who wore No. 20 with the New York Mets — seemed genuinely touched by the sentiment was more than enough to make fans smile.
While we’re being sentimental, it didn’t hurt hearing Alonso reveal he spoke with his former Mets manager, Buck Showalter, and the revered ex-Orioles skipper had “nothing but beautiful things to say” about Baltimore and assured Alonso that he’s “going to absolutely crush this place.”
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Super agent Scott Boras noted that his three other Orioles clients — Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, and Jordan Westburg — called him to express excitement about the signing and “the light that it shines on how the players in that locker room feel about the commitment” from the club. That was arguably the most significant detail revealed during the 45-minute session as the hope is Alonso being a force multiplier to ease the pressure and help bring out the best in Baltimore’s young core of position talent that mostly regressed or plateaued this past season. Perhaps it could even lead to one of the aforementioned names signing a long-term extension in the future.
Boras also offered unsolicited praise for new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz and his involvement in the courtship process with Alonso sharing excitement about Albernaz being “the guy driving the ship” on a daily basis.
Yes, we all understand lucrative money was the driving force here, but the cerebral Alonso — who cited a deeper dive into analytics and biomechanics being pivotal to his 2025 rebound after a down 2024 — gushing about the organization’s “entire blueprint” and how it checked “every single box” spoke to the long-term potential Orioles fans have imagined since Elias’ arrival in 2018 and the new ownership group purchased the club nearly two years ago. Though a multiyear rebuild resulted in plenty of young talent and back-to-back playoff appearances in 2023 and 2024, there was always the perfectly reasonable expectation that the “liftoff” Elias declared at the 2022 trade deadline would include augmenting a young roster with some premium free-agent talent, especially after years of spending next to nothing on the major league roster.
The Orioles have finally done that, and while more needs to be done to improve the 2026 club on the pitching side beyond the recent additions of two-time All-Star closer Ryan Helsley and reliever Andrew Kittredge, one can dream bigger after watching Rubenstein hand out his first nine-figure contract. Since taking over the club, the control owner has insisted the Orioles’ “best days are ahead of us” and reiterated his willingness to spend more for the right talent on Friday, and landing a free agent of Alonso’s caliber allows one to buy such talk rather than tempering expectations. After all, there’s plenty of payroll ground between becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers and pinching every last penny like the Miami Marlins.
More than anything, Friday’s press conference was fun and exciting, which aren’t adjectives we’ve used to describe the Orioles at this point in the offseason in a very long time. Albernaz called the Alonso signing “a great Christmas present” on top of the offseason additions already, which include outfielder Taylor Ward.
And while Elias still needs to acquire a frontline starting pitcher at the very least, Alonso said it best in wishing he could press the “fast forward button” to spring training.
Such a press conference was a long time coming, but that made it no less gratifying for anyone wanting the Orioles to be great.
