SARASOTA, Fla. — Trevor Rogers initially assumed something was wrong. He certainly wasn’t aware what was happening in real time.

A pair of fielding errors forced the Baltimore Orioles southpaw to toss extra pitches and linger underneath the sun on Tuesday afternoon. Suddenly, his teammates converged near the mound. It wasn’t a meeting called by rookie catcher Samuel Basallo, either.

Rather, it was veteran first baseman Pete Alonso, the franchise’s prized $155 million offseason acquisition, who deemed the mound visit necessary in a seemingly meaningless exhibition game against Team Netherlands.

“I thought he saw something that I was tipping pitches,” Rogers said of Alonso calling his own mound visit in the second inning.

Not quite.

“It wasn’t about [Rogers] or anybody,” Alonso said. “It was like, ‘Hey, we just need to clean it up.’ If we want to go far in the playoffs, it’s all about doing the little things right even now, getting into good habits.”

What a refreshing sense of accountability from the eighth-year slugger.

Seriously.

Position players, especially first basemen, at the pro level rarely call their own in-game meetings. That responsibility almost always belongs to the catcher or on occasional instances, the shortstop, for defensive positioning. Don’t count Alonso part of that group.

Fans likely won’t remember the early March box score from Baltimore’s 8-5 exhibition loss to the Netherlands (actually a majority of Birdland will have little-to-no recollection since the game wasn’t broadcast locally back home), but if the Orioles goes on to make a meaningful run later in the year when the games count, moments like Alonso’s on-field accountability scene will be etched in the root of the club’s emerging culture under first-year manager Craig Albernaz.

Too often throughout the Orioles’ disappointing 2025 campaign (75-87) in which they missed the postseason with a last-place finish in the AL East, the Orioles lacked the leadership required to sustain the expected blows from a 162-game gauntlet.

Insert the Polar Bear.

“If you have that habit of playing good baseball, then it becomes second nature,” Alonso said. “But now in camp, we need to lock in on it and play clean baseball. That’s just a good habit. That’s just winning culture. If we play clean baseball, good things will happen.”

Since his early arrival to spring training ahead of most teammates, Alonso has served as one of the loudest player voices across the team’s complex along the western Florida shore. From the outset, Alonso often has barked constructive and playful criticism toward his pitching teammates and hitters alike.

Many, including myself, wondered exactly how Alonso’s presence would fit not just in the middle of the lineup, but also inside a clubhouse with a talented but largely unproven bunch.

So far, it feels like a pretty nifty fit.

Especially lacking in the Orioles’ clubhouse is postseason experience; under president of baseball operations Mike Elias, the club owns an 0-5 postseason record. Alonso brings valuable experience following his record-setting seven seasons with the Mets. He appeared in 16 postseason games, including the Mets’ run to the NL Championship Series in 2024 that included postseason series wins over the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies.

Now in Baltimore, Alonso seems determined to help deliver the Orioles’ first postseason win since October 2014.

That winning formula starts during the early humid days of spring training.

“Pete’s sort of like, ‘We aren’t playing with the energy that we need to play with,’” Rogers said. “Coming from a veteran like that on March 3, really hampering down that we need to play with energy, especially [on] days like this, it’s really tough to get the body going, get yourself ready and the adrenaline pumping.

“So coming from a leader like that — oh, man, he’s going to help us a lot, especially telling us we need to pick up the slack.”

Inside the batter’s box, Alonso hasn’t missed a beat after launching 264 career home runs in New York.

The right-handed power hitter blasted his “third” home run of the spring, though his latest example of his renowned pop won’t count toward official Grapefruit League statistics since Tuesday was an exhibition with Team Netherlands warming up for World Baseball Classic pool play.

Who cares if stats won’t count from Tuesday’s exhibition? Alonso’s power and leadership are equally palpable, and exactly what the rebounding Orioles need.

There might be times throughout the regular season when Alonso, like how he did on Tuesday, has to do it all on his own.

His home run in the first inning represented the club’s only hit until he cracked a single up the middle in his next at-bat. With Gunnar Henderson departed for Team USA and Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday still rehabbing from their respective injuries, Alonso was the only projected opening day infield starter in Tuesday’s lineup with third baseman Bryan Ramos, shortstop Jeremiah Jackson and second baseman Thairo Estrada.

Alonso, whose 18.9 barrel percentage (a batted ball with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle) ranked fifth in MLB in 2025, reached base in his two plate appearances, with his sharp line drive up the middle recording a higher exit velocity (110 mph) than his 384-foot home run (102.7 mph) that landed beyond the right field fence at Ed Smith Stadium.

When the club’s front office inked him to a five-year deal, the Orioles had confidence in what they were receiving in Alonso the power hitter.

But with roughly three weeks until opening day, Alonso is quickly emerging as the Orioles’ clubhouse leader. There couldn’t be a more clear example than his latest dose of accountability and his pleading with teammates Tuesday.

“It’s a great group and these guys make it super easy to come to the field everyday and bring that energy,” Alonso said. “As you progress in your career, you start to become the older guy. For me, it’s just remembering lessons. Having that rapport with [teammates], where it’s like, you can hold each other accountable and not get your feelings hurt, and that’s super productive and great.

“It doesn’t matter how you deliver it, as long as the message is delivered and [teammates] are receptive and pulling in the same direction … it’s fantastic.”

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