[Warning: Mixed metaphors incoming. Polar bears don\u2019t like the heat. But human ballplayers do go hot and cold, respectively and metaphorically.]<\/p>\n
When the Orioles signed Pete Alonso last winter, they knew they what they were getting: the big, slow, mashing first baseman whose value resides entirely in the batter\u2019s box. Not a fielder. Not a base stealer. A big bat, designed to hit dingers, strike fear in the hearts of opposing starters, and do little else.<\/p>\n
So when Alonso dove headfirst into second base in the sixth inning of Wednesday\u2019s come-from-behind win against the White Sox\u2014belly flopping across the bag on a hustle double that ignited the go-ahead rally\u2014it felt like a statement\u2026 maybe? \u2026 about this team and its character, surely, but more importantly, about what version of Pete Alonso we might come to expect.<\/p>\n
One double is a rounding error in the career of this five-time All Star. (He\u2019s hit 185, if you were wondering.) But it felt encouraging in context. The truth is, through the first twelve games of 2026, Alonso has been\u2026 ice-cold. Not, to prolong this strained image, like a Polar Bear romping in the Artic; more like, well, a first baseman you worry might be overpaid, granted a generous five-year, $155 million contract. He\u2019s hitting .188 with a .264 OBP and .556 OPS.<\/p>\n
Wednesday didn\u2019t fix that. But maybe it was the start of improvement. Twelve games, as we know, is nothing.<\/p>\n
Also, there are other things going right. Alonso is pounding the ball right now. He\u2019s posting career-highs in exit velocity (95.1 mph) and hard-hit percentage (60.6%). He\u2019s walking at normal rates, and he\u2019s not chasing, either.<\/p>\n
The story seems pitch-specific. Alonso is a hitter who loves to hit fastballs, and this year, results-wise, despite good contact, it\u2019s not going well: his average off heaters is .185, although with an expected average (.241) about seventy points better. Interestingly, the launch angle on this pitch is way down: 5 degrees. So is his bat speed: 72.9 mph, down from above 75 in most seasons since MLB Statcast started keeping track. With a lot of ground balls off heaters, this helps to explain why his power is way down, as evidenced by a career .261 ISO (isolated power) and a .104 mark so far this season.<\/p>\n
Also, his strikeouts are up: 28.3% versus a career 22.9%. This seems to be driven by swinging strikes against breaking balls, a 40.7% whiff rate that\u2019s a career high in the way you don\u2019t want. It seems Alonso is having difficult timing up offspeed and breaking pitches, and he\u2019s seeing more of them, especially on the first pitch, than ever.<\/p>\n
Alonso is struggling to hit lefties (.100 LH vesus .211 RHP splits, respectively), but he\u2019s struggling to hit lefty fastballs most of all. He still doesn\u2019t have a hit off this pitch, despite already seeing 26 of them so far. As for right-handed pitchers, his worst work is against changeups: he\u2019s still hitting .000 off these.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m curious about the bat speed, but otherwise, my best guess, these problems are fluky and small sample-size-based and shouldn\u2019t continue. The weather is still cold, Alonso\u2019s career lefty-righty splits are .260\/.340, and power has always been his greatest strength. If I had to guess, I\u2019d say he still hasn\u2019t found his timing.<\/p>\n
Back on Wednesday, that sixth-inning double came off an 86-mph sweeper from a right hander. This is a pitch Alonso hasn\u2019t had much luck with all season. Instead, this time he put a charge into one to the gap, and then\u2014the part you don\u2019t necessarily expect from a man of his physical profile\u2014he ran. Yes, he ran. Hard and true, pulling out a double with a dive into the bag and then scored on a wild pitch. It was a nice all-around effort.<\/p>\n
Pete Alonso\u2019s designated role on this team is clubhouse leader and big bat. So far, he hasn\u2019t found the latter, for interesting reasons. But there\u2019s a lot more to him as a hitter and he\u2019s certainly earned a lot of trust with his impressive career track record and leadership already on this new team.<\/p>\n
Once the power shows up, the Polar Bear will be an anchor of this lineup. He\u2019s here to play.<\/p>\n
The Orioles are now 6-6, back at .500 after Wednesday\u2019s sweep-clincher over the White Sox, and they feel like a team that\u2019s finding something. Whether Alonso ends up being a difference-maker in the traditional sense remains to be seen. But this week, when the moment called for effort over elegance, he delivered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Warning: Mixed metaphors incoming. Polar bears don\u2019t like the heat. But human ballplayers do go hot and cold,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,3357,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-672482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles-analysis","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116380611623178683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}