Pete Alonso spoke with reporters in Port St. Lucie on Saturday and talked about a variety of topics.

While he would love to maintain the offensive success he had in 2019, Alonso has his eyes set on winning a Gold Glove Award this season.

“Just because so many people told me I couldn’t, I was a bad defender, so many people counted me out on it. But just to win that and throw it in their face would be awesome,” Alonso said.

That would be a big deal for Alonso who was once thought to be such a poor defender at first base that it would possibly lead to him ultimately being dealt to an American League club.

However, he was actually satisfactory there in 2019 as he registered -6 DRS and a 1.8 UZR over 1,328 innings at the position.

While that will be his personal goal in 2020, there’s a more team-oriented goal that him, as well as everyone on the roster, sees as the top priority.

“There’s one goal and that’s to win a World Series,” Alonso added. “I want to be celebrating on a parade float, drunk as hell celebrating with my boys. That’s the goal. I want to be having some good times with everybody celebrating and holding up the trophy.”

“There’s so many people that work hard. So many of my teammates work hard and, also, the fans deserve that as well. We’re going to work as hard as we can and we’re going to push to make it happen.”

The 25-year-old has, pretty much from day one, made himself beloved by the Mets fanbase with comments like these showing leadership by him beyond what would be expected of him at his age.

All of this is coming one year after he had serious uncertainty of what his role would be on the 2019 team, earning his way onto the team at the end of Spring Training.

“A lot was the same,” Alonso noted in terms of how he prepared for this season as compared to 2019. “I still continued my strong work ethic, my strong offseason routine. I’m feeling so good about 2020.”

“It was different in a positive way because last year I was kind of in a gray area. I was in limbo. With the team not having to bring me up, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had an opportunity to make the team. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of things were justified and clarified not just in spring training, but throughout the 2019 season.”

As referred to by Alonso, GM Brodie Van Wagenen decided to ignore the service time manipulation standard set across MLB and allowed the slugger to start the season with the Mets, forfeiting a potential year of control.

Alonso rewarded him for that decision by carrying the offense with an MLB rookie record of 53 home runs over 161 games. He also won the Home Run Derby and made the All-Star Game.

Much of the organization has a championship on their minds this season and there’s a lot to be excited about, even after a drama-filled offseason.