Baltimore Orioles Should Avoid This Star Free Agent Slugger at All Costs

The Baltimore Orioles have had nothing short of a head-scratcher of an offseason to this point in the winter.

While they have signed players, the additions they made have been questionable, to say the least.

There is still time left before the 2025 campaign gets underway, but the options remaining in free agency that can help the team are few and far between.

That does not mean that speculation is not still in abundance, however, and the hype machine surrounding some players has clouded judgment.

In a recent article from Camden Chat, Paul Folkemer made a case for the Orioles to go after free agent first baseman Pete Alonso, although he did clarify he does not expect the club to be interested and that it was purely a "what-if" scenario.

"The O’s lineup could use someone to replace the 44 home runs that are walking out the door with Anthony Santander," writes Folkemer, "and with Walltimore being brought in, Alonso could take aim at the left-field seats at Camden Yards."

While Anthony Santander did hit 44 home runs in 2024, they came in a contract year. His previous career-high was 33, and he most likely will not come anywhere near that total again in his career.

For Alonso, the hype machine has surrounded the Polar Bear throughout his career, mostly from his Rookie of the Year campaign that saw him knock 53 home runs.

He now has 226 for his career across six seasons, for an average of 37.67 per year. If the 16 he hit in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign is extrapolated to a full season's worth of games, he would have hit 43 for a new total of 253 for an average of 42.17 per year.

Those are fantastic home run numbers, but once getting past those, everything goes downhill fast for the slugger.

Much like Luis Arraez is a one-trick pony as a singles merchant, Alonso is a one-trick pony as a "bomb or dud" hitter.

For his career, Alonso has batted .249/.339/.514 across 3,607 plate appearances. That on-base percentage is nearly 100 points higher than his average, which is certainly a good thing, but 42 of his 358 career walks, over 10%, have been intentional.

If those 42 intentional walks are removed, Alonso's career OBP drops to .332.

But wait, there's more.

Alonso has been hit by a pitch 85 times in his career. If those are removed, along with the intentional walks which he also has no control over (other than getting out of the way for the HBP), his career OBP drops to .315.

A .249/.315/.514 career line looks much worse than his actual numbers, but is much closer to his true abilities.

To take things a step further, 28.9% of Alonso's 781 career hits have been home runs. Of the remaining 555 hits, 406 have been singles. That means 73% of his balls put in play has only gone for one base.

Bomb or dud.

Reports earlier in the offseason indicated that Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, are using Prince Fielder's nine-year, $214 million contract as a benchmark for his value in free agency.

They could not have less of a clue of Alonso's value.

While the Baltimore organization has made some questionable signings this offseason, luckily enough for their fans, they have not made this one.

Perhaps they remember how the Chris Davis contract turned out.