Mike Elias pulled off the biggest free agency signing of his tenure with the Baltimore Orioles when he brought longtime Mets slugger Pete Alonso to the team on a five-year, $155 million deal earlier this week.
A guy who has never hit less than 34 home runs in a full MLB season would be a great addition to any team’s lineup. However, Alonso seems uniquely suited to fit well into the Orioles’ offense, given that they lacked a guy with true home run power during their disappointing 2025 campaign. What Baltimore does have is young and athletic hitters who should be able to get on base and set the table for Alonso to drive them in.
Not to mention that Alonso’s durability (he has played in every single regular season game over the past two seasons) is a real asset, especially since the Orioles were injury-plagued last year. This is why Elias’ signing made all the sense in the world, and explains why Baltimore fans are feeling so optimistic about next season.
Mike Elias Speaks On Pete Alonso’s Orioles Fit
Mike Elias addressed the Alonso signing on the “Orioles Hot Stove Show,” on December 11, which was quoted in a December 12 article from MASN’s Roch Kubatko.
“We had quite a nice presentation for him about the Orioles, living in Baltimore, the types of players that we have on the team, the great facilities that we have. We’re opening a brand new, huge performance center in Sarasota. We’ve got so much good stuff going on around the organization, so I think he was really appealed by all of that,” Elias said.
He later added, “I think that Pete has been one of the most productive, steady and consistent middle of the lineup sluggers. Plays every game, and just the consistency and volume of the production that he brings has been elite around baseball, and so we’re gonna get a lot of production around him. But I also expect that the way he’s going to interact with the rest of the batting lineup is going to hopefully help raise the performances of the young guys around him.
“I like the way that the lineup looks now with a lot of really strong bats from the right side,” Elias continued. “So I think we have a really good-looking lineup. Our front office is working very, very hard right now, and so we’re not resting and we’re looking for more opportunities out there and doing more to improve the team the rest of the offseason.”
Orioles fans have a lot to look forward to in 2026. And it appears that Elias isn’t done this offseason, as he has made his intention to add a frontline pitcher extremely clear.
