The Winter Meetings have been nothing short of disastrous for the New York Mets, and losing closer Edwin Díaz to the Los Angeles Dodgers was a major blow on its own, but Wednesday afternoon delivered yet another setback.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, longtime Mets first baseman Pete Alonso has agreed to a five-year, $155 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles, giving him the highest average annual value ever awarded to a first baseman.
Alonso’s departure comes barely a day after the Dodgers poached Díaz, and a little more than two weeks after New York traded outfielder Brandon Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for second baseman Marcus Semien.
MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported that the Mets never extended a formal offer to Alonso, since the bidding was clearly moving into a range the organization was not willing to match.
Alonso, 31, is coming off his fifth All-Star season, finishing with 38 home runs, 41 doubles, 126 RBI and an .871 OPS, a strong rebound from a down year in 2024. Since his debut in 2019, he has hit 264 home runs, ranking third behind Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber in that span, and he leads all players with 712 RBI. His 53 homers as a rookie set an MLB record and earned him National League Rookie of the Year honors, and excluding the shortened 2020 season, he has never finished a full year with fewer than 34 home runs.
This past August, Alonso hit his 253rd career homer, passing Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history, and he remains a two-time Home Run Derby champion after winning the event in 2019 and 2021.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].