NEW YORK — Chants of “We want Pete” started up among Mets fans Saturday as the team’s key decision makers sat down for a panel at Citi Field.

The chants grew louder about 20 minutes later when Pete Alonso’s name was mentioned.

But the chants stopped suddenly when Mets owner Steve Cohen candidly expressed his frustrations with how the free-agent negotiations with Alonso’s camp have transpired.

“This has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation,” Cohen said at the Mets’ Amazin’ Day fan festival.

“[Juan] Soto was tough. This is worse. … We made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetrical against us, and I feel strongly about it.”

Alonso, who is represented by agent Scott Boras, remains at an impasse with the Mets, with whom he’s spent his first six MLB seasons.

His 226 home runs rank third in team history, but the first baseman is coming off of a 2024 season in which his 34 homers, 88 RBI and .788 OPS marked career lows, not including the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

The Mets appeared to begin pivoting this month, signing outfielder Jesse Winker to a one-year, $8 million contract and reliever A.J. Minter to a two-year, $22 million deal. Earlier in the offseason, the Mets signed superstar slugger Juan Soto to a record-setting 15-year, $765 million pact.

“I will never say, ‘No.’ There’s always the possibility, but the reality is we’re moving forward and we continue to bring in players,” Cohen said of Alonso.

“As we continue to bring in players, the reality is it becomes harder to fit Pete into what is a very expensive group of players that we already have. That’s where we are, and I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us.”

More and more MLB teams have become reluctant to make significant investments in power-hitting first baseman on the other side of 30.

Alonso, who turned 30 last month, reportedly rejected a seven-year, $158 million extension offer during the 2023 season, before Boras was his agent and before David Stearns was the Mets’ president of baseball operations.

The Toronto Blue Jays are among the teams to be linked to Alonso in recent days.

“I’ll always stay flexible,” Cohen said, “but if it stays this way, I think we may have to get used to the fact that we may have to go forward.”

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