Not many pieces of Orioles-related news are worth holding a big press conference event. The signing of Pete Alonso absolutely makes the cut. The team is holding a presser with its $155 million man at 4pm
Eastern on Friday. The press conference will be streamed online. I’ll be doing my best to transcribe the questions and answers in the comments below. Once there’s a live link, I’ll try to post that in the comments as well.
In addition to Alonso, expected to appear for questions at the conference are president of baseball operations Mike Elias, majority owner David Rubenstein, and Alonso’s agent Scott Boras.
I expect some more-or-less softball questions to Alonso, asking him things about what he’d like Orioles fans to know about what kind of player he is, what made him want to sign with the Orioles (when everyone knows it’s that they offered the most money), whether he’s already spoken to manager Craig Albernaz or any of his new teammates. If I had the chance to ask Alonso a question, I would ask how he assesses his own defensive abilities at first base and what he’s working on over the offseason.
Boras will probably be asked what the negotiating process was like, when the Orioles got involved, and how quickly a deal came together once things got serious. If someone with credentials to the conference is feeling bold enough, they might ask Boras about another one of his clients, Japanese starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai, and whether he’s had any conversations with Elias about Imai.
Many people are going to want to know from Elias and Rubenstein whether the Orioles are done spending this offseason. The team is now up to about $142 million for its Opening Day payroll. The actual expense is higher, with some numerical trickery involved in Alonso being paid a signing bonus of about $12 million that doesn’t count towards 2025 payroll. Such things do count towards the Competitive Balance Tax, though the Orioles are nowhere close to worrying about that.
Last year’s Opening Day payroll figure was about $165 million. It still appears that the Orioles need to get two more starting pitchers onto the payroll, one of whom has a credible chance of being a top-of-the-rotation threat. Depending on how they choose to address this, that could take as little as $30 million more for 2026 payroll or perhaps on the other end even more than $40 million.
Is Elias really going to do that? Is Rubenstein? Will anyone ask passive-aggressive questions that lead to prickly responses from the owner, as happened in the Albernaz press conference? We’ll all find out when the cameras turn on.
