On Friday, Pete Alonso spoke at length about what attracted him to the Orioles and what he hopes to accomplish after the free agent first baseman signed a five year, $155 million contract. Here are excerpts:
On whether he could help the Orioles succeed in the postseason:
“The playoffs for me is such an addicting feeling and playing that high leverage in the brightest lights. That’s where, for me, that’s the whole reason why you go through the spring training, the 162-game marathon for those short, tiny little moments in the highest leverage of situations because that’s really what this is all for. This is all to get to October and really just win games. How I’m going to help is to share my experience and pretty much share whatever has helped me kind of step and rise into the occasion. I want to be an open book, pretty much to everyone in the clubhouse.
“For me, I take pride in that. Not only do I love performing but ultimately I love foraging great relationships and being a great teammate, and for me, I want to be able to help, however I can, whether it be performing or kind of like helping, helping whoever needs it. I’m all in.”
Last season, Alonso hit .291 with a .929 OPS against right-handed pitchers and .227 with a .729 OPS against left-handed pitchers. On the reason for his success against right-handers:
“I think a huge adjustment I made was in the offseason from ’24 to ’25, kind of deep dove into some things, how I could get better as a player. And for me, I love baseball, and I love performing. There’s some areas I wanted to attack to get better, and for me it was understanding my body and I pretty much took a huge deep dive into analytics, and not just that, but using biomechanics, biometrics, to really understand how my body moves. And I used that with a blend of scouting to have more success on the field. Last year was my first year really taking that on with a full understanding of things, and I feel like as time goes on, the more information I have in this new way, I feel like I’m really going to extract even better seasons from my skills.”
On what convinced Alonso to come to Baltimore:
“I think as the free-agent process, once that kind of starts, you really kind of don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s this weird baseball limbo. But then as you start to sit down and really start to think about things, you kind of have some time to really reflect. As the offseason progressed, realistically, as we got further along, this partnership to me it was just head and shoulders above everybody else.
“This park, this city, this team, this organization, everything combined, everything just clicked. And for me, it was the perfect fit, not just as a player but for family life, too. I could go up and down a laundry list of things, there were just so many boxes, and every single box this place checked. For us, we’re just so pleased, and for this organization to see me, not just in the now but in the future, I mean, it’s such a blessing. I can’t wait to play. I can’t wait to perform. I can’t wait to win games.”
On ownership’s commitment to winning:
“I’ve played on a couple winning teams, and yes, you need talent, you need especially some young guys and a mix of veterans, and you need commitment from top to bottom. For me, there was no hesitation at all. It was like, ‘Yep, that’s the team. Yep, these are the people. Yep, Baltimore’s it.’ I remember texting my wife, ‘This is going to be the place for us. This is the place that really wants us. And this team, this organization, this is going to be it.’
She’s like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ For us, I can’t speak to how much gratitude we have. But again, we want to make good on it. We want to make good on it. I’m going to take care of things on the field, win as many ballgames as possible and hold up a trophy at the end of the year, and immerse ourselves in the community.”
On what he’s learned going through free agency twice in the last two years:
The past year and a half, I would say, yeah, OK, you can have trials and tribulations, but there’s just moments like this one where I’m just overcome with joy where it just justifies the hard work, it justifies the sacrifice and it’s really galvanizing. It’s really energizing where you look back over the quest or the journey. It’s like, yeah, certain things are worth it.
“Even the start with right after the postseason In ’24, it’s like, ‘OK, we’re going back and going back to Tampa to no house because it got flooded by Helene and then it’s like, we’re a free agent and it’s like, where do we go? What do we do?’ So, having all that and then having now, it’s a sense of home and it’s really tremendous. And again, I’ve really enjoyed playing in New York. I’m very gracious for that opportunity and, again, there’s some amazing people over there. Whether it be the locker room, staff, clubbies, it’s phenomenal. I really enjoyed my time, but this right here, this organization, this city, I’m so proud to call it home.”
On whether he can be the first right-handed hitter to hit a ball on Eutaw Street:
“I mean, why not? Why not? I mean, yeah, that’d be great. Obviously, I’ve got to get a pitch to do it. And, yeah,, hopefully that happens. That’d be great.”
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.