JUPITER, Fla. — The Mets can’t let Pete Alonso get away for all the reasons the Yankees couldn’t let Aaron Judge get away, even before Judge hit 62. Alonso is the Mets’ Judge. It is as simple as that.

Alonso is a homegrown, home run talent. He has hit more home runs since he got to the big leagues than Judge has hit, or anybody else in the sport has hit, for that matter, and it’s not as if all the other guys haven’t had the same chance. And when this season is over, the Mets can’t let him go hit his home runs somewhere else. It wouldn’t be as dumb as trading away Tom Seaver, because nothing they’ve ever done or could ever do compares with that, and the way it shattered the relationship between the team and its fans in 1977 But it would be the dumbest thing since.

Alonso is the biggest star in New York sports that nobody talks nearly enough about, or seems to appreciate enough. He is the Polar Bear, he is the Home Run Derby guy, he is the guy who broke Judge’s rookie record for home runs the year after Judge set it. Alonso has done what he’s done in New York the same as Judge has, as a slugging first baseman that his former manager, Buck Showalter, calls “country strong.” In addition to everything else, he is the most popular player the Mets have, by a lot.

He is more important to Mets fans than the owner or his money, certainly more important than the new set of numbers guys in the front office, fronted now by David Stearns. There has been a lot of change around the Mets since Alonso made it to the big leagues. The owner had changed, the names in the front office have changed. Alonso is already working on his third Mets manager, just five years into his career.

The thing that does not change around the Mets is Alonso.