PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Pete Alonso, with a winter of discord behind him, tried to turn the page.

On Monday, the slugging first baseman spoke to reporters for the first time since reupping with the Mets on a two-year, $54 million pact that features an opt-out after 2025. That was, quite simply, not the contract Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, were seeking when the offseason began. But a satisfactory long-term deal never materialized, which ultimately led Alonso back to the only club he has ever known.

“For me, this was it,” the gleeful Floridian insisted Monday. “I’m just really happy to be back.”

Alonso’s upbeat demeanor and positive comments, while genuine — he referred to the organization as “home” multiple times in his media conference — don’t tell the complete story of his winter. This is more than a simple, feel-good reunion. As the offseason crawled along with Alonso lingering on the market, negotiations between his team and the Mets eventually developed a contentious edge, bleeding into the public eye. At a fan event in January, Mets owner Steve Cohen described his conversations with Boras and Alonso as “exhausting.”

For Alonso, it's impossible to describe his first free-agent foray as anything other than a disappointment, at least financially. During the summer of 2023, Alonso declined a seven-year, $158 million extension offer from the Mets. That offseason, he switched agencies, hoping that Boras, the game’s most notorious agent, would deliver the goods after 2024. Freddie Freeman’s six-year, $162 contract seemed to be the goal.

Then Alonso posted the most underwhelming statistical campaign of his career, one that he admitted made things difficult for him on the open market.

“I couldn’t expect something incredibly mega-long because I didn’t have my best year,” he said when asked if he was surprised by how the market valued him. “In ‘23, I didn’t really have my best year, either. The two years stacked up, [I] didn’t really play to my potential.”

Lackluster 2024 aside, Alonso remains one of the game’s premier power threats. His 226 homers since his debut in 2019 rank second behind only Aaron Judge. His 846 games played also ranks second, behind only Marcus Semien. Few hitters in the game offer that level of impact and durability. And while Alonso’s profile has warts — he’s a 30-year-old, plodding, right-handed-hitting first baseman — the résumé seemed sturdy enough to secure a big contract. Or at least a contract bigger than the one he got.

Understandably, Alonso tried on Monday to spin his new contract as a positive, referencing the $30 million average annual value benchmark he is setting for first basemen. He described the deal as a “bridge contract” and pointed to another factor that dampened his market.

“The qualifying offer definitely had an impact," he conceded. "That’s something I didn’t really expect."

The qualifying offer, or “QO” as it’s colloquially known, is a one-year offer at a set price — this offseason, that number was $21.05 million — that teams can extend to their players as they enter free agency. If a player with a QO signs with a new club, that club forfeits a draft pick, typically in the top few rounds. The club that lost the QO player receives a draft pick as compensation.

This winter, 13 players received a QO, and only one, Cincinnati pitcher Nick Martinez, accepted. Players saddled with a QO often have a harder time finding employment. Nowadays, analytically inclined clubs cling to draft picks like kids with candy. But because a player can be saddled with a qualifying offer only once, if Alonso chooses to opt out after 2025, he won’t be burdened by it again.

The implication that the QO limited his market and pushed him to a somewhat undesirable deal in Queens was easily the most revealing moment of the day.

Asked if he regretted not agreeing to an extension in 2023, Alonso, understandably, reframed his questionable decision in a positive light.

“I don’t really regret it because for me, every single step of the way in my career, whether it’s high school, college, minor leagues, even through my six years, you bet on yourself every single year,” he said.

Whether this all leads to a long-term deal with the Mets remains to be seen. If everything goes well for “The Polar Bear” in 2025, he’ll test the market again this winter. The Mets would, once more, be involved. Alonso, who is just 27 homers away from the franchise record, insists there’s no lingering ill will between him and Mets brass. Cohen, who is set to speak tomorrow at spring training, will surely say the same thing.

And that’s mostly true. These are professionals; this is a business. There’s no reason to expect the winter discord to bleed into the summer. Players compartmentalize all the time. It’s likely that Alonso and his bosses will be able to do the same.

But asked if he, like Cohen, was at any point exhausted by the negotiations, Alonso laughed, shook his head and delivered a firm “no.”

“Sorry, Steve,” he said.