Alonso Bids Mets Farewell; Chooses Orioles Over Red Sox

Pete Alonso, who has spent his entire 7-year MLB career with the New York Mets, has signed a 5-year, $155 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles,

It should be noted that Alonso wasn't the O's first choice. They wanted Kyle Schwarber and offered him $150 million over five seasons but Schwarber opted to stay in the City of Brotherly Love for the same money.

But Alonso was just fine with being a Plan B. After all, the Mets did not see fit to make him an offer after he opted out of a 2-year deal he signed before last season. While it was strongly rumored that Alonso could sign with the Boston Red Sox the team was wary of the fact that he just turned 31 on Sunday and offered him fewer years and far less money. Alonso also talked with the Chicago Cubs, but it appeared to have been little more than conversation. Under the circumstances, who would blame Alonso for signing with Baltimore?

Yes, any free agent signing is a risk. Just ask the Los Angeles Angels with Anthony Rendon. Yet it must be said that Alonso has proven to be a durable player. He played all 162 games for the past two seasons. Needless to say, the Orioles are far less averse to signing a 31-year-old first baseman who can knock it out of the park.

Let us remember that Alonso is the Mets' all-time HR leader having passed Darryl Strawberry back in August. I lived in New York during Alonso's rookie season in 2019. Here was someone who was not expected to make that ballclub and then proceeds to set an MLB rookie record for HRs with 53. Alonso made himself the face of the franchise. Yet the Mets never entirely accepted him in that role and tried to unload him several times including to the Cubs in 2023 for Pete Crow-Armstrong as well as to the Milwaukee Brewers that same season.

Alonso will enter the 2026 season with 951 career hits for a lifetime batting average of .253 with 264 HR and 712 RBI with NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2019, 5 NL All-Star Team selections, 2 HR Derby championships along with a Silver Slugger. After a disappointing 2025 season following back-to-back post-season appearances in 2023 and 2024, Orioles fans will have a lot to cheer about when he steps up to the plate at Camden Yards for the first time. Of course, O's fans are hoping there will be a lot at bats, a lot of HRs and their first World Series in over 40 years to cheer about. So, no pressure, Pete. 

Will The Rays Give Steven Matz a Chance to be a Starting Pitcher Again?

On Monday, pitcher Steven Matz signed a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays worth $15 million.

Matz, 34, split the 2025 season between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox. Indeed, I saw Matz pitch at Fenway out of the bullpen back in August against the Miami Marlins, but he gave up a 2-run HR to Jakob Marsee in a 5-3 loss.

The veteran southpaw was originally drafted out of high school by the New York Mets in the 2nd round of the 2009 MLB Draft. Matz would make his MLB debut with the Mets in 2015 when they won the NL pennant and would pitch in the World Series starting Game 4 against the Kansas City Royals.

Although Matz finished 6th in NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2016, he did not live up to expectations in Queens. Frequent trips to the disabled list didn't help matters. After an appalling 0-5 record with a 9.68 ERA during the COVID shortened 2020 season, the Mets dealt Matz to the Toronto Blue Jays where he would enjoy his best MLB season in 2021 when he finished with a record of 14-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 29 starts striking out 144 batters in 150.2 innings pitched.

Prior to the 2022 season, Matz signed a 4-year, $44 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Matz's inaugural season in St. Louis would come to an abrupt end with a torn MCL mid-season. In 2023, it was his lat, and in 2024, it was his back. By 2025, Matz was primarily working out of the bullpen, and he would continue to do so after the Cardinals sent him packing to Boston. In a career high 53 appearances (51 in relief) between both clubs, Matz went 5-2 with 3.05 ERA pitching 76.2 innings fanning 59 against only 11 walks.

Now that Matz has joined the Rays, the question is will he get another chance to be a starting pitcher again. I'm inclined to think that he will get to compete for a spot in the Rays rotation. But it could be the case that keeping Matz in the bullpen reduces his risk for injury. 

While I think that Matz would prefer to start, I think he is at the stage of his career that he will go with the flow and could embrace the bullpen if it helps extend his career.

Trump Admin Depriving Legal Immigrants of Citizenship at Faneuil Hall is Un-American

Following the first 100 days of President Trump's second term, I made the case that the meaning of citizenship had changed. I wrote, "They are trying to make it a commodity which one can lose at a moment's notice like a 401(k)."

Mind you, I wrote this in the context of American born citizens receiving letters from DHS demanding they leave the country. But it equally applies to landed immigrants who have played by the rules only to be told they won't attain American citizenship. They are being informed only moments before they were to be naturalized as American citizens as was the case at Faneuil Hall in Boston last week:

Immigrants approved to be naturalized went to Faneuil Hall Thursday — known as the country’s cradle of liberty — for that long-awaited moment to pledge allegiance to the United States. But instead, as they lined up, some were told by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials that they couldn’t proceed due to their countries of origin.

The same situation is playing out at naturalization events across the country as USCIS directed its employees to halt adjudicating all immigration pathways for people from 19 countries deemed to be “high risk”.

The 19 countries in question are Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen,

Last I checked, national origin is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Not that the Trump Administration cares about the Civil Rights Act much less civil rights. President Trump has made his feelings about Somalis known characterizing them as "garbage" while threatening land strikes against Venezuela amid randomly firing on alleged drug boats off its coast. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump repeated the false claim the Haitian migrants were eating cats and dogs.

The idea that a Republican President would oppose immigration from Cuba would have been inconceivable 15 years ago, but not so now. As for Chad, I'm convinced that Trump grew up disliking someone named Chad. This policy is arbitrary and capricious.

Of course, the attack a fortnight ago in Washington, D.C. by an Afghan national which claimed the life of a member of the West Virginia National Guard while wounding another member is the casus belli of this arbitrary and discriminatory policy. It amounts to little more than collective punishment.

Aside from the discrimination on the basis of national origin, this policy also represents a violation of individual rights. If the Trump Administration has evidence that any of the people who were deprived of the citizenship they legally attained, then let them show cause. 

Naturally, they have no such evidence. The Trump Administration simply wishes to exclude people from certain countries from ever attaining American citizenship. In time, they will no doubt attempt to render these people as enemy aliens with the objective of deportation.

In summary, the actions of the Trump Administration at Faneuil Hall and elsewhere around the country are fundamentally un-American.

Dodgers Add Diaz as New Closer

 

As if the Los Angeles Dodgers weren't already baseball's elite, they have now added Edwin Diaz as their new closer. The 31-year-old Puerto Rican native has signed a 3-year, $69 million with the back-to-back World Series champions.

Diaz had spent the past six seasons with the New York Mets and was among the few bright spots on a team which collapsed down the stretch. In 2025, Diaz went 6-3 with a 1.63 ERA posting 28 saves while fanning 98 batters over 66.1 innings pitched with only 21 walks earning a NL All-Star Team selection.

Prior to the 2023 season, Diaz signed a 5-year contract extension with the Mets worth $102 million but decided to opt out with two years remaining on the deal. The Mets were committed to re-signing him, but Diaz was reportedly displeased when they signed ex-Yankees pitcher Devin Williams earlier this month. I'm not sure why Diaz was shocked the team wouldn't pursue another closer when he opted out of his deal. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if Williams is the projected closer for the Mets or if they go out and add another veteran closer such as Kenley Jansen.

While it could be argued that the Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches, the addition of Diaz in the back end of the bullpen is an upgrade. Although Tanner Scott posted a career high 23 saves, he also logged a 4.74 ERA which more than doubled his combined 2.31 ERA with the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres in 2024.

Still, no NL team has ever won three consecutive World Series. While the odds are against it, it might not be a good idea to bet against the Dodgers especially if Diaz answer the bell in the 9th inning.

When High School Students Form a Human Swastika & Quote Hitler

Here is a profoundly disturbing story.

Last week, eight teenagers attending Branham High School in San Jose, California posed for a picture laying down on the school's football field in the form of a swastika.

If this wasn't bad enough, the picture was posted onto Instagram with a quote from none other than Adolf Hitler.

This can only be interpreted as a call for killing Jews. Period.

Scott Wiener, a California Democratic State Senator, posted on Facebook regarding the incident and stated in part:

The school responded well to this horrific incident. But we need to ask ourselves why these students believed it was ok to do this — not just the swastika but linking it to extermination of Jews due to “international financial Jews.”

Yet some have praised the eight students with one commenter writing, "This gives me faith in the next generation." In which case, it is reasonable to conclude that the parents were fine and dandy with this overt display of anti-Semitism.

Although Branham High may have taken swift action in this instance, it may have contributed to the hateful sentiments as two of its teachers showed students a YouTube video from Al Jazeera English titled "Zionism is not the same as Judaism".

Maya Bronicki, the Director of Education with the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, stated:

If these kids would have received proper training, proper lessons, hopefully this could have been prevented, and that’s what we are hoping that will happen now that, unfortunately, it was visible enough to get the attention of the broader community.

I don't think these kids would have taken to any kind of proper training. Indeed, I suspect this is the act of true believers. And instead of being guided by the elders toward wisdom, they are being praised for their wickedness. At best, the school and the community at large can try to prevent further harm. But the damage has been done.

Trump Mideast Envoy Barrack Claims Israel is "Not a Democracy" But Calls Hezbollah "a Political Party"

Here is a significant reason as to why I am not convinced President Trump is as pro-Israel as he claims or is advertised by others.

Enter Thomas Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria.

At the Doha Forum last night in Qatar, Barrack said this about Israel:

We have never had a democracy in [the Middle East]...I don't see a democracy. Israel can claim it is a democracy, but in this region, what's worked the best, whether you like it or you do not like it, is a benevolent monarchy.

Now contrast this with what Barrack had to say about Hezbollah after meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun back in July:

Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.

Well, let's begin with Barrack's claim on Israel. Now Barrack might very well prefer Middle Eastern monarchies, but his statement is simply fatuous nonsense.

Since 1948, Israel has held 25 elections, has peacefully transferred power from one ruling coalition to another 11 times, has a fiercely independent judiciary (notwithstanding recent challenges) and a thriving civil society. If that isn't democracy, then what is?

Certainly not Hezbollah. Calling Hezbollah a political party with "a militant aspect to it" is pure whitewash. Hezbollah, after all, bombed the military barracks in Beirut in 1983 killing 241 U.S. Marines along with 58 French military personnel and assassinated former Lebanese President Rafic Hariri in 2005 and saw fit to attack Israel in solidarity with Hamas the day after the October 7th attacks. Last I checked, the United States deems Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization.

Barrack's apologia for Hezbollah and disdain of Israel is buoyed by Trump's tolerance of these outbursts. But Trump's tolerance is not surprising considering they have been business associates for 40 years and Barrack was crucial in getting leaders in the Gulf Arab states to warm up to Trump following his inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign. Indeed, Barrack was later arrested and tried for unlawfully lobbying the Trump Administration on behalf of the United Arab Emirates although he would be acquitted.

Acquittal or not, this illustrates Trump's transactional approach to governing often for personal gain as illustrated by Qatar donating Trump a new Air Force One. It is why Barrack can get away with praising a Gulf Arab monarchy which has long harbored Hamas and is actively trying to prevent Hamas from disarming along with Turkey (no doubt with Ambassador Barrack's blessing). 

When it comes to Trump and what he will allow from his underlings, always follow the money.

MTG: Denouncing Anti-Semitism is Something "They Force on Congress"

In an interview with 60 Minutes, soon to be former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that the votes taken to denounce anti-Semitism is something "they force on Congress."

While MTG did not specify the "they" in question is, she offered a clue when Lesley Stahl pressed her on the subject.

"Well, most members of Congress take money from AIPAC, and I don't."

And when Greene says AIPAC, she means Israel. As she told Megyn Kelly back in August, “Israel is the only country I know of that has some sort of incredible influence and control over nearly every single one of my colleagues.”

During the interview with Stahl, Greene further objected to denouncing anti-Semitism by stating, “We don’t have to get on our knees and say it over and over again.”

Well, soon MTG will be collecting her congressional pension without the burden of having to denounce anti-Semitism or visit a Holocaust museum ever again. She can tell us how she truly feels about Jews. Although it's not like she ever really hid her feelings on the subject.