In early December, when Mets all-time home run king Pete Alonso hopped in his car for the 81-mile trek up Interstate 4 from Tampa to Orlando, he must have felt like he was driving away from New York. 

Conferences with at least three teams at the Orlando Waldorf were on his Winter Meetings calendar that day — though none with his beloved, incumbent Mets. 

Only 10 months earlier, back in February 2025, Mets owner Steve Cohen saved Alonso for one final season in Queens immediately following a very forthright, three-hour meeting at Alonso’s home golf club in Tampa. But history was not about to repeat. The Mets were about to be in Alonso’s rearview mirror. 

The iconic Met finally does return to Flushing on Monday, but as the Baltimore Orioles’ biggest star, the American League RBI leader and one of the biggest ones who got away. He’ll surely receive a huge ovation when introduced at Citi Field, and he can further solidify what seems now like the worst call of a brutal Mets winter if he hits career homer No. 300 back in his old stamping grounds — he’s at 299.