Orioles agree to $155 million, 5-year deal with slugger Pete Alonso, AP source says

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Orioles agreed to a $155 million, five-year contract with slugger Pete Alonso, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was pending a physical.

It's a major move for a Baltimore team that vowed to be aggressive following a last-place finish in the AL East. Alonso hit .272 with 38 home runs and 126 RBIs for the New York Mets this year, posting an .871 OPS that was his highest since he hit 53 home runs as a rookie in 2019.

Alonso, a first baseman who turned 31 on Sunday, hit a franchise-record 264 homers over seven seasons with the Mets. He's earned All-Star honors five times, including each of the past four years.

Nicknamed the Polar Bear, Alonso became a Citi Field fan favorite as a homegrown member of the Mets. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2019, when he hit .260 with a major league-high 53 homers — a rookie record — and 120 RBIs. He had a career-high 131 RBIs in 2022.

Alonso batted a career-low .217 in 2023 while hitting 46 homers and driving in 118 runs, and he hit .240 with 34 homers and 88 RBIs in 2024.

After a slow free agent market last winter, Alonso signed a $54 million, two-year contract to stay with the Mets, but he opted out of the final year of the deal, forfeiting $24 million.

Alonso turned down a $158 million, seven-year offer from the Mets in 2023 that would have covered 2024-30. He will wind up earning $205.5 million over those seven seasons, a 30% increase.

Alonso met with teams at the winter meetings in Orlando, Florida.

“Pete lives in Tampa, it’s rather warm there,” his agent, Scott Boras, said Tuesday. “So the polar vortex of last year has kind of thawed. So the prior market — that prior bear market is exhausted."

The Orioles won the AL East in 2023 and were a wild card last year, but a team full of young talent backslid significantly in 2025. Baltimore’s pitching had a lot to do with that, but the offense wasn’t great either despite the presence of Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg.

Alonso gives the Orioles a veteran power bat in the middle of the lineup, and new manager Craig Albernaz will have some flexibility. Rutschman and Samuel Basallo are options at both catcher and designated hitter, with Basallo potentially getting at-bats at first base, too. Alonso has played 162 games each of the past two seasons, almost entirely at first base.

It's now harder to see a path to regular playing time, barring injury, for first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, who could become a free agent after the 2026 season. Coby Mayo, a power-hitting prospect who hit .217 with 11 homers in 85 games this year, may also be blocked.

Baltimore could still use a dependable starter to help a rotation that produced a 4.65 ERA last season, but acquiring Alonso shows the Orioles are willing and able to land a top free agent after sticking mostly to short-term deals in recent years.

“Christmas came early,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said on social media after the news broke.

Earlier this offseason, Baltimore signed reliever Ryan Helsley and traded for outfielder Taylor Ward.

The Mets lost Alonso a day after All-Star closer Edwin Díaz agreed to leave New York for a $69 million, three-year contract with the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, a deal still not finalized. New York also traded outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas on Nov. 24 for Gold Glove second baseman Marcus Semien.

New York was baseball's second-biggest spender this year behind the Dodgers but failed to reach the postseason.

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso hits a three-run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso celebrates a three-run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso reacts during a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

FILE - New York Mets' Pete Alonso, left, stands with Francisco Lindor after flying out with the bases loaded during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge declined Wednesday to halt next week's scheduled execution of a Georgia man who argued that he should be shielded by an agreement reached during the COVID-19 pandemic that set conditions for the state to resume putting condemned people to death.

Stacey Humphreys, 52, is scheduled to die Dec. 17 for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked in an Atlanta suburb.

U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May heard arguments in Atlanta and ruled that Humphreys failed to show that his rights to due process and equal protection would be violated by putting him to death now.

Nathan Potek, an attorney for Humphreys, had argued that those constitutional rights would be violated because a deal made when executions were paused during the pandemic is still being used to delay some executions, but not for Humphreys and others.

“Even though Mr. Humphreys is on death row right now, he retains that fundamental right to life,” Potek said.

After Georgia put executions on hold during the pandemic, the state attorney general’s office entered into an agreement with lawyers for people on death row to set the terms under which they could resume. The state Supreme Court has affirmed that the agreement is a binding contract.

The text of the agreement says it applies only to people on death row whose requests to have their appeals reheard were denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while a pandemic-related judicial emergency was in place.

The judicial emergency was lifted in June 2021 and the appeals court rejected Humphreys’ request in October 2024. Lawyers for the state argue that Humphreys is, therefore, not covered by the agreement and his execution should be allowed to proceed.

“Ultimately, we haven’t infringed on any constitutional process that they are entitled to,” said Sabrina Graham, an assistant Georgia attorney general.

Under the agreement, three conditions must be met before executions could be scheduled for the covered prisoners: the expiration of the state’s COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine “to all members of the public.”

Although the judicial emergency was lifted more than four years ago, defense attorneys say the other two conditions have not been met because visitation is “severely restricted” compared with pre-pandemic levels and infants under 6 months old are not eligible for the vaccine.

A judge ruled earlier this year that the vaccine condition hasn’t yet been met, and the state’s appeal of that ruling is pending before the Georgia Supreme Court. The judge plans to handle the visitation issue separately.

Humphreys’ lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in October that the agreement’s clear purpose was to allow lawyers for people on death row to adequately prepare for clemency proceedings and for the “frantic time period immediately leading up to execution proceedings.”

They argue that seeking to execute people who weren’t included while the agreement remains in effect creates “a distinct, disfavored class” of death row prisoners who won’t be guaranteed he same level of legal representation.

Lawyers for the state said Humphreys has failed to show how his lawyers have been restricted from preparing for his upcoming execution because of COVID-19 or that the state has arbitrarily chosen to exclude him from the agreement.

The state’s lawyers also pointed out that death row prisoner Willie James Pye made similar arguments before his execution in March 2024 and a federal judge found that “the State clearly has a valid basis for drawing a line between the inmates covered and not covered by the Agreement.” A similar case brought by three other people on Georgia’s death row was rejected by a federal judge and is pending before the 11th Circuit.

The judge noted that Humphreys had due process in the legal system and, now that he has been convicted and his appeals are exhausted, the state has the authority to execute him. There is “considerable variability” on how long it takes for an execution to be carried out, and that has never been found to cause equal protection concerns, she wrote. Humphreys failed to show that he should be protected by the agreement because he was “expressly excluded from its terms,” she found.

Humphreys, who has multiple health issues, also asked the state to modify its execution protocol to allow him to stand or sit fully upright during the lethal injection process because he is likely to struggle to breathe if lying on his back.

In a newly filed federal complaint, his lawyers said that if the changes are not made “he will be subjected to a torturous and grotesque spectacle.”

“Mr. Humphreys will very likely struggle to breathe while in this supine position, with a constant feeling of choking and fear that a person being strangled would experience,” wrote Dr. Paul Zolty, who evaluated Humphreys’ health.

Graham told Judge May that she’s been in touch with corrections officials about the issue. The judge and the lawyers said they will await more information on how the state plans to proceed regarding the chair position. If necessary, the judge will schedule a hearing Friday on that issue, she said.

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.

FILE - Guards stand at the front of Georgia Diagnostic Prison, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Jackson, Ga. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

FILE - The gurney used for lethal injections sits behind glass windows in a small cinder block building at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., Sept. 7, 2007. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)