So, beyond revealing an exhaustion from negotiating with Alonso’s camp, Cohen’s comments confirmed a couple of other matters. One, in a world without Alonso returning to Flushing, the Mets may add more pieces. Two, the Mets are at least acting like they care about how much they spend.

It feels like a Mets team hoping to build on last year will be incomplete without Pete Alonso at first. But David Stearns can’t be swayed by that.

This was a recurring theme throughout SNY broadcaster Gary Cohen’s conversation with the Mets’ leadership. Later, after Stearns repeated how much the team loves Alonso, their homegrown, free agent first baseman, Stearns expressed that they “also feel really good about the young players that are coming through (the) system.”

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, top baseball operations executive David Stearns, and manager Carlos Mendoza held a forum during the team's fan fest event on Saturday. Predictably, the group was met with "We want Pete" chants from onlookers hoping to persuade the braintrust into entering a new agreement with longtime first baseman and current free agent Pete Alonso.