Baltimore’s loss Friday night was the latest reminder that Pete Alonso is not carrying the offense the Orioles paid to build around him. The Orioles fell 6-3 to the Giants, and Alonso struck out twice with runners in scoring position in a game that ended with him tossing a wristband to the ground in frustration on the way back to his locker.
Alonso is batting.176 with a.525 OPS and is 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. He has 264 home runs across his previous seven seasons, which is why Baltimore made him its franchise headlining free agent over the offseason, committing $223 million in contracts to Alonso and Shane Baz. Through 13 games, the Orioles were 6-7, and the early returns have put more weight on the nights when Alonso comes up empty than on the seasons that made him one of baseball’s most dangerous hitters.
That is the backdrop for a team that expected Alonso to stabilize an order that has too often needed other bats to carry it. The Orioles are committed to Alonso and Baz through 2030, and they made that bet knowing the cost: one elite slugger who can change a lineup, and another arm they paid to be part of the long-term core after acquiring Shane Baz in December for four prospects and a draft pick and then signing him to a long-term deal last month before his first start for the club.
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Friday was uneven on both fronts. Baz allowed three earned runs over five innings, giving up nine hits and two walks, and Willy Adames added damage with a 402-foot home run off him in the third inning. But Alonso’s night was the sharper concern because the Orioles signed him to be the player who changes those moments, not the one who extends them.
Craig Albernaz said Alonso does not appear lost so much as overloaded, noting that when a hitter is right, it is usually about seeing the ball and hitting it rather than thinking through too much. He said Alonso looks as if he is trying to handle too much in his approach and may be searching a little on that end. Samuel Basallo offered the opposite tone, saying everybody goes through slumps, even the best players in the game, and that Alonso is one of them. Basallo said it is only a matter of days until Alonso gets it going soon and, by season’s end, the Orioles will be looking at him as one of the best players.
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That confidence may be the only version of this story Baltimore can live with for now. The Orioles did not commit $223 million to watch Alonso drift through April, and they did not build a roster around him to keep explaining nights when the game reaches a base-hit situation and he comes away empty. The next stretch will not change the price they paid, but it will say plenty about whether this is a slow start or the first real test of a major bet that already has the season asking harder questions than Baltimore wanted this early.
