“I love this team. I love this organization. “This fan base has treated not only myself but also my family so well,” Alonso said. “Right now I’m just thinking about the group. Of course we'll see what happens. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I love New York. …The memories we've made here are just, wow. That’s why we play baseball.”

There are on-field and sentimental reasons for the Mets to explore all options to lock up the slugger who possesses rare power and whose 226 home runs rank him third all-time in franchise history.

A return would certainly mean Darryl Strawberry's record of 252 would fall.

Alonso is a clubhouse leader who leads by actions and words, the guy who might borrow a bat and lead a comical routine on the team bus.

“Pete has done so much for this organization since the beginning,” said Brandon Nimmo, who tested free agency but returned to the Mets on a long-term deal. “He means a lot to this fan base and this team. I would like to see him here again, but even as I go through this process, I understand it is a business.”

There are concerns about how a lumbering first baseman who turns 30 in December will age.

Alonso had a brilliant postseason but, by his own standards, a slightly below-average regular season with 34 home runs, a .240 average and a .788 OPS, the worst of his career.

Was this an offseason or was this the start of a downward trend?

If the Mets allow Alonso to walk, it's possible they look externally for a replacement, and it's possible they ask third baseman Mark Vientos to travel across the diamond.

Alonso and the Mets front office have questions to answer that are for another day. On this day, Alonso wanted to think about the 2024 Mets.

“We say it all the time, this place is a zoo, but it's true,” Alonso said. “Just this strange group of people who came together, bonded and experienced so much. One of our second basemen is a top-selling Billboard artist.”