Pete Alonso Wins AL Home Run And RBI Titles
TLDR: Pete Alonso closed his first Orioles season with 43 homers and 113 RBIs, leading the American League in both and becoming the first player to top both leagues in RBIs.
The Polar Bear's first season in Baltimore did exactly what the Orioles paid him to do. Alonso signed a 5-year, $155 million deal before 2026, and the bat came with him down the Acela line. The season ended Sunday, and when the last games went final he had the American League home run crown and the RBI crown.
Pete Alonso officially wins the American League home run and RBI race. He clubbed 43 homers and produced 113 RBIs. What a season
The history is the good part. Alonso led the National League in RBIs back in 2022 with the Mets. Now he's done it in the AL too, and nobody in MLB history had ever led both leagues in RBIs over a career. Plenty of sluggers have switched leagues. None of them finished first in RBIs on both sides.
Pete Alonso is the first player in MLB history to finish atop both the NL and AL in RBIs in their career
There's one thing he didn't get. His 113 RBIs were second in all of baseball, 3 behind Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson, who finished with 116. That makes Burleson the first Cardinal to lead the majors in RBIs since Joe Torre in 1971. Alonso's last game got wiped out by weather, so he didn't get a final swing at closing the gap, and the St. Louis beat had its answer before Baltimore's season was officially over.
Pete Alonso will not catch Alec Burleson,
New York Yankees@YankeesIn coordination with Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees have announced that today’s Yankees-Orioles game (Sunday, September 27) will not be played due to the forecast of sustained inclement weather. The game will not be rescheduled. Please see the graphic for additional information.
That rainout also ended a streak. Alonso is basically never off the lineup card, and he hadn't missed a game since 2023. This year he played all 161 games the Orioles actually got in, so it goes down as the first season since 2023 he didn't play 162, even though he never sat out a game.
For the first time since 2023, Pete Alonso will not play all 162 games in a season. He instead played all 161 this year, but that'll be a fun fact some day
The advanced stats liked him too. Alonso finished with 4.9 WAR, second in his career only to his 5.4 WAR rookie season in 2019, when he hit 53 homers and won Rookie of the Year. Take the defensive half of WAR as seriously as you want (the Orioles beat writer doesn't take it very seriously), but it's still a big season from a first baseman people had started writing off as a one-dimensional masher.
Pete Alonso finished with 4.9 WAR, which is a flawed stat and I always argue against the defensive side of it, but hey, that means Pete Alonso just produced his second best season. In 2019, he amounted 5.4 WAR
The downside is the team around him. Baltimore went 79-82 and finished 4th in the AL East, so the Orioles' best individual season in years goes into an October with no playoff baseball. Alonso held up his end in year 1 of 5. Now the front office has to build a lineup that makes 43 and 113 mean something in the standings.
