MLB free agency for the 2026 season began on Nov. 6, but it wasn’t until the Winter Meetings started on Dec. 7 that many experts expected the ball to really get rolling on player movement. They were right. Since then, the likes of Devin Williams, Edwin Diaz, and Kyle Schwarber inked new deals.
And on Wednesday, Dec. 10, the final day of the Winter Meetings in Orlando, another major transaction took place as one of the game’s top sluggers switched teams.
Alonso, who turned 31 on December 7, first became a free agent after the 2024 MLB season. Negotiations with the Mets on a long-term deal fell through, and he ended up signing with New York on a two-year deal that had an option for the 2026 MLB season.
After posting a career-high batting average of .272, hitting 38 home runs, driving in 126 runs, leading the NL with 41 doubles, and both making the All-Star Game and winning a Silver Slugger, Alonso, as expected, turned down the option to enter free agency.
He leaves New York with 264 career home runs, the most in franchise history. Alonso is as prolific a home run hitter as there is in this era as that home run total is the third-most in all of baseball for the period of 2019, when he made his debut in 2019, through last season, trailing only Aaron Judge (285) and Schwarber (268).
Not only that, but his 264 homers are the third-most in MLB history for a player through his first seven seasons, behind only Ralph Kiner (294) and Albert Pujols (282). Alonso could very well have topped that list had the 2020 season not been shortened due to the pandemic.
The Orioles are getting more than just a potent bat; they’re also getting a consistent and durable player who never leaves the lineup, which is something that a franchise which had the Iron Man in Cal Ripken Jr. should appreciate. No MLB player has played in more games than Alonso’s 1,008 since he entered the league, which is 17 more than anyone else. He’s suited up for all 162 games in each of the last two seasons.
First base was certainly in need of an upgrade for Baltimore, as the cumulative wins above replacement for Orioles’ first basemen last year was -1.0. Five different players started at the position, topped by Coby Mayo (67 starts), who hit only .217. Others logging time at the position included Ryan Mountcastle (50 starts), who posted the lowest OPS (On-base Plus Slugging) of his seven MLB seasons (.653), and Ryan O’Hearn (39 starts), who was productive with an .837 OPS for Baltimore but was traded midseason to San Diego.
Alonso should certainly upgrade the offensive production for the Orioles, which was definitely lacking last year. The team ranked among the bottom five in the American League in runs, total bases, slugging percentage, and OPS. The first baseman has a good chance to be an even more prolific home run hitter in Baltimore than in the borough of Queens in New York City, just from the difference in ballparks he now calls home.
The Mets’ Citi Field was roughly middle of the pack in terms of adjusted home runs due to park factors over a rolling three-year period from 2023–2025. However, the Orioles’ Camden Yards ranked as the eighth-best venue to hit home runs in over that same period. Then there’s the fact that Alonso will play divisional games against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium now, and that ballpark ranks as the third best to hit home runs in.
Alonso will also get to play regularly in Tampa Bay, Florida, whenever the Orioles match up with their fellow AL East team in the Rays. Alonso is a native of Tampa, went to H.B. Plant High School in the city, and was drafted out of the University of Florida in 2016 by the Mets.
As for the Mets, they now have a seismic hole to fill at first base, as Alonso played 98 percent of the available innings at the position last year. In terms of the current roster, utility man Mark Vientos may be given the first opportunity to win the job, though the former third baseman’s bat regressed last season.
The Mets also have a pair of first basemen prospects waiting in the minor league wings in Ryan Clifford and Jacob Reimer. The former supplies home run power, with 29 long balls last season between AA and AAA, while Reimer is seen as more of an all-around player as he had double-digit homers and steals last year across A+ and AA baseball. Per MLB.com, Clifford is expected to make his major league debut in 2026, while Reimer is expected to be called up in 2027.
