Yankees, Mets need to write a few more checks to keep pace with rivals

As strange as it was to see Pete Alonso wearing an Orioles jersey during Friday’s introduction at Camden Yards, or Edwin Diaz slipping on Dodger blue 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles minutes later, the truly unsettling part for those mourning their departures was the unbridled ambition of their new teams. Alonso’s unveiling, with agent Scott Boras seated beside him, came off as a civic holiday in Baltimore, with his five-year, $155 million contract — the largest ever handed out by the Orioles — a relatively small price to pay for such a watershed moment. At the opposite end of the dais, next to president of baseball operations Mike Elias, sat billionaire owner David Rubenstein, who gave the...