Peter Schmuck: New Oriole slugger Pete Alonso isn’t the next Frank Robinson, but he is a game-changer

It was nice to hear Orioles control partner David Rubenstein wax nostalgic about the way Frank Robinson turned the team into a multiple World Series champion, but attaching that kind of expectation to new O’s slugger Pete Alonso is a stretch.

Don’t misunderstand. I fully endorse the decision to give the former Mets superstar that $155 million contract. It was time for the O’s to dip into their deeper pockets and pull out a major offensive threat to balance their lineup and change the subject after such a disappointing 2025 season, and Alonso certainly fits that description.

He’s definitely a difference-maker and his run production numbers are certainly comparable to the first seven years of Robinson’s Hall of Fame career. If he continues to be one of the most durable and productive power hitters in the game, he’ll likely join Robinson in the Hall of Fame, perhaps even wearing an O’s cap.

But Robinson stands alongside the very greatest hitters who ever stepped into a major league batter’s box and the circumstances of his arrival and its heady aftermath would be hard to duplicate for anyone playing in today’s game.

It is true that Alonso is in a position to be the straw that stirs a winning drink at Oriole Park. There aren’t many players who can say they hit 53 homers in their rookie season and have never hit fewer than 34 in any full season since.

Alonso is the ultimate gamer. Even if you haven’t followed his career in New York, if you regularly watch the All-Star Home Run Derby, which he has won multiple times, you saw the intensity and preparation he poured into what is supposed to be a pure entertainment event. Obviously, he carries that attitude into everything he does on a baseball field, which should have a huge positive influence on the young guys playing alongside him.

Does he instantly make the Orioles a strong World Series contender? Of course not, but he does flesh out an offensive lineup that has the potential to be one of the best in the business. If Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Colton Cowser can harness their full potential, 2026 will be a very exciting and competitive season.

But bringing the O’s back from a last-place finish in the American League East will take a lot more than that, and turning a middle-market team into a four-time World Series participant over a six-year stretch – which Robinson helped make possible from 1966-71 – is all but an impossible dream in the big-money free agency era.

Rubenstein and I are old enough to remember the days when baseball teams were able to keep their great pitchers under club control indefinitely. The Orioles had enough pitching depth in the mid-1960s to deal a very good starting pitcher (Milt Pappas) and a solid relief pitcher (Jack Baldschun) to get a 30-year-old player the Cincinnati Reds thought was on his way over the hill.

The Orioles were already a very good team at that point, winning 97 and 94 games the previous two seasons. They entered the ‘66 season with a solid rotation that featured Dave McNally and a 20-year-old rookie who would end up in the Hall of Fame and still entertains Orioles fans from the MASN broadcast booth. The bullpen wasn’t bad, either, featuring a whole bunch of relievers with ERAs that started with a 2.

Though the Orioles could not overcome some key pitching injuries in 1967, they would assemble a legendary starting rotation that helped carry them to three straight World Series appearances, featured three 20-game winners in 1970 and a record four 20-game winners in 1971.

President of baseball operations Mike Elias is currently working to upgrade both ends of the pitching staff, and Rubenstein did not rule out another major free-agent purchase, but this year’s team will still have to depend on big comeback seasons from Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells as well as the continued success of Trevor Rogers to make the steep climb up the division standings.

The Alonso signing could have an impact beyond his offensive numbers if his arrival makes the Orioles more attractive to free-agent pitchers over the next few years and a more explosive offense in 2026 should take some pressure off the pitching staff.

That wouldn’t make him the next Frank Robinson, but it would certainly make Orioles fans very happy.