The Baltimore Orioles just did the classic Winter Meetings mic-drop. Show up, throw a bag at a big name, and let everyone else stare at their phones. Pete Alonso to Baltimore on a five-year, $155 million deal is a real cannonball move.
But if you’re a Mariners fan, you read that number and immediately start doing the kind of math that shouldn’t be necessary in December.
Seattle has completed their “first-base shopping.” They came back with Josh Naylor on the same five-year deal for $92.5 million, creating a $62.5 million gap that’s large enough to buy an entire bullpen and a backup catcher if they felt the need — or, more realistically, to keep the rest of the winter from turning into a “we’re done here” press conference.