The Mets now face an offseason of questions

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Sure, the Mets lost the World Series to the Royals in five games, but with their young and talented rotation in place, they could be a perennial contender for years. They should be, even! Will they be, though? That’s a question we won’t know the answer to until we see if their owners, the Wilpons, finally open up the wallets a bit to collect the complementary pieces this absurd rotation deserves.

The lineup wasn’t any good until around the trade deadline, when Yoenis Cespedes was acquired and went nuclear at the plate and rookie Michael Conforto had a very successful debut. Cespedes is now a free agent, as is second baseman Daniel Murphy -- who finished third among starters in OPS+ -- so the Mets will at least have to do something to replace their production, whether it’s re-signing Yoenis or looking elsewhere. Lucas Duda might be their only reliable top-end hitter, as he’s had a season like 2015 three times in four tries now, and Curtis Granderson, for as good as his year was, will be 35 next year and hadn’t been quite this productive since 2011. It’s not a given that he will struggle, or that the league will adjust to Conforto just long enough to mess up the sophomore’s line, but you can see these scenarios occurring in a lineup that can’t afford their becoming reality.

Better relievers and better defenders would go a long way, if the hitting isn’t available or the Mets just whiff on bringing it in. The Mets will likely have to spend to make that happen, though, especially since they have shown themselves unwilling to trade prospects and young players, and despite their presence in New York’s market, that is not a given. This rotation deserves some spending to help it out, and the fans who have so much hope for the future deserve it, too. It’s all up to the Wilpons to actually do it, though.