First, the Mets let Pete Alonso walk. Then, on his first trip back to Citi Field, Steve Cohen welcomed him like nothing happened. Hours later, New York lost to Alonso’s new team. That was never going to sit well with everyone. Mets fans still gave Alonso standing ovations and chants, while Cohen’s warm welcome only made things more awkward. And now, an MLB analyst is calling out the Mets over how they handled Alonso’s exit.

“I’m going to base it on the facts. You never made him an offer,” Evan Roberts, the WFAN host, blasted Cohen in a recent podcast. “And you stood there on the field at Citi Field and said, this will always be your home. It’s a lie. It wasn’t his home. You kicked him out. You and Stearns kicked him out.”

Roberts was hardly alone in his frustration. Mets fans showered Alonso with cheers in his first game back as an Oriole while loudly chanting “Fire Stearns.” Baltimore’s 2-1 win, which officially eliminated New York from playoff contention, only made the night more painful.

That frustration had been building since Alonso’s exit. Drafted by the Mets in 2016, he debuted in 2019 and spent seven seasons in New York before entering free agency after 2025. Yet the Mets never made their longtime star a formal offer, allowing Baltimore to swoop in with a five-year, $155 million deal.

But the fans weren’t the only ones welcoming Alonso back. Citi Field played a tribute video before the game, and Steve Cohen personally approached him. “This is your home… appreciate you, Pete,” Cohen told him before the two shook hands.

Roberts saw that gesture very differently. To him, Cohen had little room to be sentimental after the Mets passed on bringing Alonso back and watched him produce for another team.

“Do what Stearns did, hide. That’s what you should do, just hide, bro,” Roberts said. “Don’t give me this [expletive] about, ‘oh, it’s always going to be your home.’ You know who has a right to say that? Every Met fan not named you.”

At the same time, Roberts defended the fans who chose to celebrate Alonso’s return.

“I don’t need to hear from Yankee fans, or casual Mets fans, or holier-than-thou lecturers about what we can do and what we can’t do, okay? We’re pissed off that Alonso isn’t here,” he added. “We showed him our love yesterday, and nobody did anything wrong.”

And the Mets have lived through this kind of backlash before. In 1977, they refused to give Tom Seaver the contract he wanted and instead shipped the three-time Cy Young winner to Cincinnati in the “Midnight Massacre.” This was not just another star leaving. Seaver had helped deliver the 1969 World Series and was still the face of the franchise, which is why his trade remains, in MLB’s own words, the most unpopular move in Mets history.

Decades later, the Mets are facing familiar backlash as another franchise star thrives elsewhere. Alonso, meanwhile, has moved on, thanking the 35,800 fans at Citi Field while admitting Baltimore now feels like home.

Reflecting on his seven years in New York, Alonso said, “The video, I know, is probably like two minutes-ish, and for me, I blinked and seven years went by. It really felt so quick. I’m just really grateful for the years, the experiences, the people. It’s really, really cool.”

For the Mets, the sting is simple: Alonso remembers New York, but Baltimore is home now.