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Pete Alonso's debut season with the Baltimore Orioles may not have culminated in a postseason appearance, but the veteran first baseman undeniably ranked among the American League's premier hitters throughout the 2026 campaign. Appearing in 161 games, Alonso launched 43 home runs, drove in 113 runs, and recorded an .885 OPS. He paced the AL in both home runs and RBIs.
Baltimore concluded the season with a 79-82 record, placing fourth in the AL East. The club finished 18 1/2 games behind division champion Tampa Bay, which later captured the pennant, and 4 1/2 games out of the final AL Wild Card spot. The Orioles' final game was a 6-3 loss to the New York Yankees on Sept. 25, which left the team at 79-82. In coordination with Major League Baseball, the Yankees announced that the scheduled series finale would not be played due to the weather forecast and it was not rescheduled, preventing Alonso from completing a 162-game season.
The Orioles signed Alonso to a five-year contract in the offseason, keeping him in black and orange through 2030. Selected by the New York Mets from the University of Florida in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft, Alonso was the No. 64 overall pick. The right-handed slugger has amassed 307 career home runs, 825 RBIs, and an .861 OPS, and he stands as the Mets' all-time home runs leader.
Alonso was the only Orioles player included among the 2026 All-MLB nominees. While Baltimore fell short of the playoffs, Alonso's regular-season performance provided a silver lining after the team invested in him during the offseason. The fourth annual MLB Awards were held inside The Chelsea, a venue at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
Key Analysis
For Alonso, this marks the second First Team selection of his career, following his recognition at first base in 2019 while with New York. All-MLB voting evaluates regular-season performance across the entire sport rather than producing separate American League and National League teams. Fan ballots accounted for 50 percent of the result, while a panel of baseball media members supplied the other half. Alonso is also an American League Silver Slugger finalist, with that award scheduled to be announced on Nov. 17.
This winter brings numerous questions for the Orioles and MLB at large, but Baltimore knows who will be manning first base for the foreseeable future. Alonso is a cornerstone piece worth building around and an absolute free agency win for the Orioles last winter when they went all-in to sign him.
Originally reported by yahoo.