After the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to a five-year, $155 million contract, ESPN’s highly respected Jeff Passan was bullish on the Orioles’ potential.
“The Baltimore Orioles lineup might have the best lineup in baseball,” he wrote on X. “Whatever order Craig Albernaz chooses, he’s got Gunnar Henderson, Pete Alonso, Jordan Westburg, Taylor Ward, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday, Sam Basallo, Dylan Beavers and Colton Cowser. A wrecking crew.”
It didn’t turn out that way. Westburg, who hit 35 home runs in 2024 and 2025, didn’t play at all after Tommy John surgery. Ward, who hit a career-high 36 home runs for the Los Angeles Angels in 2025, had only seven for the Orioles, one at home, before he was traded to Seattle on August 3rd.
Rutschman hit 20 home runs in 2023 and had eight before his trade. Holliday, who hit 17 in 2025, had just seven in 98 games in a year in which he had injuries to both his left and right wrists.
Cowser, who had 24 in 2024, hit 13. In their first full seasons, Basallo had 18, and Beavers nine.
Henderson and Coby Mayo each hit 24, and Alonso was the only Oriole who met power expectations with 43, tied for the eighth most in club history.
Optimistic fans thought the team would set a club record for most home runs in a season. They hit 199, 10th most in baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers hit 154, tied for second fewest in the game, and Tampa Bay hit 169, 22nd in baseball.
The Orioles’ obsession with home runs is nothing new. For generations, Earl Weaver’s philosophy of pitching and three-run home runs has been passed down.
Home runs alone don’t win games. The Orioles have hit 200 or more home runs 13 times, and while they qualified for the postseason in their three most homer-happy seasons — 257 in 1996, 253 in 2016, 235 in 2024 — they’ve also had some awful years when they hit plenty of homers.
In 2019, when they lost 108 games, third most in team history, they slammed 213 home runs, and in 2017, when they fell out of contention in September and finished with 87 losses, they had 232 — fourth most in team history.
When the Orioles won 101 games and the American League East in 2023, they hit 183 home runs.
This season, they hit 22 three-run home runs, five of them by Alonso. They also hit six grand slams.
While Alonso deserved to be a unanimous choice for Most Valuable Oriole, he didn’t have enough runners on base when he homered.
Looking ahead, the Orioles should have sufficient power in 2027. The 31-year-old Alonso is in the prime of his career, and he won’t have the first month adjustment that he had this year. He had just four home runs on April 30th.
Henderson, who had 28 home runs in 2023 and 37 in 2024, could hit more, and Mayo has the potential to hit 40 home runs. He hit 10 in August and September. Basallo could hit 30 home runs, too.
The Orioles need more production from their outfield and perhaps they’ll acquire a power-hitting outfielder.
They had 10 or more home runs from players who weren’t in Passan’s projected lineup — Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who was acquired from Cincinnati in April, hit 11 in the second half of the season; and Tyler O’Neill and Jeremiah Jackson each hit 10.
Some of their top-rated minor league prospects could add some power, too. Shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who was the organizational player of the year, hit 25 for Double-A Chesapeake and High-A Frederick, and first baseman/outfielder Ike Irish hit 16 in 76 games for Frederick before a knee injury ended his season.
First baseman Victor Figueroa, who was acquired from San Diego in July 2025, led Orioles’ minor leaguers with 27 home runs, though he struck out 155 times in 115 games for the Keys and Baysox.
Figueroa isn’t listed among the Orioles’ top 30 prospects. Nor is Vance Honeycutt, the team’s No. 1 draft pick in 2024. Honeycutt, who struggled in his first two-plus seasons in the minors, hit five home runs in 20 games for Chesapeake after hitting 10 in 93 games, striking out 110 times for Frederick. Honeycutt has three home runs in nine games for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League.
In 2023, the Orioles moved away from power when they drafted Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the first round. Bradfield has just 12 home runs in 307 minor league games. He does have 179 stolen bases. This year, he hit four homers and stole 44 bases in 98 games.
President of baseball operations Mike Elias said that Bradfield should debut for the Orioles in 2027.
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