Mets have a fast-approaching deadline to decide on Pete Alonso

The Mets have a deadline when it comes to re-signing Pete Alonso.

It’s not when spring training opens with pitchers and catchers reporting to Port St. Lucie, Florida, on Feb. 10.

It’s not Opening Day in Houston on March 27.

It’s Jan. 25, when the Mets hold a fan fest at Citi Field called “Amazin’ Day.”

If Alonso still is unsigned on Jan. 25, he will become the focus of what is supposed to be a celebration of the amazin’ 2024 Mets and the promise of the Juan Soto-led 2025 team.

The Mets can’t allow that to happen. It’s time to step up and bring Pete home — or flat out announce that the club has moved on by walling off Alonso’s return by signing or trading for another slugger.

It has been obvious for two years now that the Mets and Alonso don’t agree on his value. Alonso reportedly turned down a seven-year, $158-million extension in 2023 that was offered by the Billy Eppler regime.

Eppler is gone, replaced by cool-headed David Stearns, and so is that offer. Recent reports have the club standing firm at something like a three-year, $90-million contract, with opt outs and enough bells and whistles for Alonso and agent Scott Boras to claim victory when basic math would call it a defeat.

But most Mets fans don’t care how much cabbage ends up in Alonso’s bank account. They just want the Polar Bear back at first base in 2025, even if the analytics say he’s a slow-footed, defensively challenged, aging 30-year-old first baseman whose numbers declined in his walk year. That profile is not what teams are looking to spend on, obviously, or Alonso would be swimming in offers.

The problem for Boras in what has been a robust first base market this offseason has been to identify that one club that sees Alonso for more than his power numbers, for more than his declining value, and sees one of the best teammates in baseball who plays every single day, who treasures being a big leaguer, and who with the Mets’ season on the line in Game 3 of the wild-card series in Milwaukee hit one of the most clutch home runs in franchise history.

Oh, right, there is a team that should value all that: the Mets.

Add in what Alonso means to the fan base, and it seems a bit cruel that the club is taking such a hard line. The Mets all of a sudden have a budget? But only when it comes to Alonso?

Mets fans fell in love with Alonso’s earnest, goofy personality, and perhaps fans of the Mariners or Giants or some other heretofore unknown suitor would fall in love with him, too.

But Pete is a Met. It’s probably why he’ll eventually end up swallowing his pride and taking the final, best Mets offer to remain in Flushing.

It would behoove the Mets to get this done before fans swarm Citi Field on Jan. 25 for the club’s first fan fest since 2020.

General admission tickets to the event are sold out. There are a limited number of VIP tickets available at $950 a pop.

Along with the meet and greets and autograph signings and other events with Mets players past and present (lineup to be announced), the Mets plan to serve up heaping helpings of goodwill to their fans, who are beyond thrilled about the team’s remarkable playoff run last season and signing of Soto to a record $765-million contract.

Why spoil all that with unending questions such as, “When are you signing Pete?”

Mets owner Steve Cohen hasn’t posted on X since Dec. 14, when he thanked fans for buying 2025 tickets like they were going out of style after the Soto signing.

Of the 2,700 responses to that post, a good number of them were along the lines of one user who wrote, “Please sign Pete to a nice extension! He needs to be a Met For Life!!!” followed by four polar bear emojis.

When it comes to Alonso, the people have clearly spoken. With their hearts.

In the next week-plus, we’ll find out if the Mets are listening. If not, they’re gonna get an earful on Jan. 25.