NEW YORK -- Friday felt like a return home for Pete Alonso.
No, the Orioles’ first baseman wasn’t in Tampa, Fla., where he was born and raised. Nor was the 31-year-old in Queens, where he spent the first seven seasons of his MLB career playing for the Mets. However, the Polar Bear wasn’t far from his old stomping grounds.
Alonso returned to New York, but he was in the Bronx. And although he wasn’t playing at Citi Field, a day spent in Manhattan followed by playing a game at Yankee Stadium felt at least a bit like old times.
“Waking up, walking around, I know I don’t live here anymore. But also, being here for so long, it’s just back in the old neighborhood,” Alonso said Friday afternoon. “It’s nice, obviously, and being around familiar stuff, it’s cool and I’m excited. Excited to play today.”
It didn’t take long for Alonso to make himself back at home, either.
In his first plate appearance in New York since signing a five-year, $155 million contract with Baltimore in December, Alonso slugged an opposite-field solo shot to the second deck in right field during the second inning of the O’s series-opening 7-2 loss to the Yankees. It was the type of swing he showed so often in his time here, when he became the Mets’ all-time homer leader.
“It's awesome to come in wearing new colors,” Alonso said. “It's like, ‘All right, instead of a crosstown rival, now we're a divisional rival.’ It feels good.”
There’s a lot more to Alonso’s connection to New York than baseball, though. He was an active member of the community. It’s also the birthplace of his son, Teddy, who his wife, Haley, gave birth to last Sept. 21 at the Mount Sinai Hospital.
But baseball was a big part of Alonso’s life in the Big Apple. The University of Florida product was a second-round pick of the Mets in the 2016 MLB Draft, then began his professional career by playing for Single-A Brooklyn later that year.
Alonso thought the future would be in New York, too. He admits now he never considered the possibility that the Mets’ season-ending loss in Miami last Sept. 28 would be his final game with the organization.
But after Alonso opted out of the final year (and $24 million) on his contract following the 2025 campaign, free agency steered him toward the Orioles, who made a strong push to land him.
“Both the Orioles as an organization and myself, I feel like we align and fit perfectly,” Alonso said. “When you have something good, you focus on it.”
That meant the end of a chapter, as well. And after Alonso signed with Baltimore, he said he did not have any final conversations with Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns or owner Steve Cohen. However, he spoke with some former teammates (including Sean Manaea and Ryne Stanek), as well as New York manager Carlos Mendoza.
“For me, having that respect from the guys that I was with every day, the guys that I was going to battle with so to speak, from the manager to the players, having that respect is obviously nice,” Alonso said. “But there’s no final conversation from a brass or ownership standpoint.”
Was Alonso surprised by that at all?
“Things were progressing in a way with Baltimore and they were just like, ‘OK, all right,’” Alonso said. “When you’re going through free agency and things are coming across, when things are so good, you don’t want to mess up the golden egg so to speak. I just wanted to nurture that flowering relationship and be able to come [to Baltimore].”
The Alonso-less Mets have struggled so far in 2026, entering Friday with an MLB-worst 10-21 record. Alonso isn’t closely tracking his old team, noting he’s “locked in” on his new club. He knows turnarounds are possible after a slow start to a 162-game season, as he learned in 2024, when New York was 24-35 on June 2 yet finished 89-73 and reached the National League Championship Series.
“Things were very bleak, from an outside perspective. Baseball is a long season. It’s a marathon,” Alonso said. “It’s bad, but there’s five months left in the season. There's always time.”
It’s important to remember the same thing regarding the O’s (15-17) and Alonso, who is hitting .203 with a .704 OPS through 32 games. Friday’s home run was only his fifth of the season, but it was his second in four games (and his third in eight contests).
If Alonso is heating up, there’s a chance the Orioles could follow suit.
“He’s shown flashes of Pete Alonso that we all know and love,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “I foresee him here soon really starting to take off.”