The 2021 Mets season is over, finishing eight games under .500 and in third place in the NL East. Based on preseason expectations and where the Mets were at in the standings in the middle of the season, it’s as disappointing of an end result as the franchise has had since the mid-2000s.

Nevertheless, the offseason is immediately underway, as the Mets have a litany of things to do in order to reshape the organization and push toward contention in 2022. Here are three things the team can do before the end of the World Series and before the next league year starts.

Hire A President of Baseball Operations

This is the most important thing the team needs to get done. It’s a decision that will impact the franchise for at least the next half-decade and potentially beyond.

The Mets’ unsuccessfully hiring a POBO the last offseason led to settling on a structure where Jared Porter, as general manager, would report to Sandy Alderson, who’d act as a POBO in the interim. That quickly failed as Porter needed to be fired, and Zack Scott took over. He helped the team tread water after he was forced to make dozens of 40-man roster moves in the first two months of the year after nearly all of the Opening Day starting lineup got injured at different points. Then Scott was arrested and charged with a DUI in August, and Bryn Alderson took over as acting general manager.

So that’s three GMs in about eight months.

This is why hiring a POBO, one who is a consistent, respected, and established figure, is paramount.

Jon Heyman said the team will be in contact with Theo Epstein “soon” regarding the top job, and they’re also expected to request interviews for Billy Beane (the executive vice president of the Oakland A’s) and David Stearns (Brewers’ POBO), though the latter is unlikely to be allowed to be granted an interview by Brewers ownership even if he wanted one.

Michael Hill, who’s been in the running for the general manager position twice before, has also been floated as a name who’s interested in the job.

Sandy Alderson said last week that he hopes the person who’d be hired would be with the team long-term, will “provide us with the leadership and expertise that we need on the baseball side” and is ready to be “in the weeds” in terms of day-to-day operations of the club.

Figure Out the Coaching Staff Situation

Next up in importance (though likely first up in what actually gets done) is sorting out what will happen with the coaching staff.

Luis Rojas has an option for 2022 on his contract, and his fate may decide the fate of the rest of the coaching staff, from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to bench coach Dave Jauss to hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum.

Alderson said he wants to move “quickly” on deciding what to do with the coaching staff, and that he’s comfortable making decisions on the coaching staff before hiring a president of baseball ops. This leads people to believe that Rojas is likely done as Mets manager, as a POBO would probably want to decide who’d manager the club he’s presiding over.

There is also the chance that Rojas’ contract isn’t renewed, but certain members of the coaching staff — like Hefner and Quattlebaum — are retained. Again, Alderson said he planned to make these decisions sooner rather than later, likely as soon as this week.

If Alderson and the Mets decide to move on from Rojas, then comes the job of finding a new manager and filling whatever holes there are on the coaching staff.

Lay The Groundwork For Extensions

While the Mets have a lot of work to do with regard to free agency and improving their roster, that can’t really be done until the new league year starts in November (and a president of baseball ops is in place). In the meantime, as the front office is getting organized, it would be wise of the Mets to start laying the groundwork to keep guys already in the organization around for a while (and avoiding situations like they had with Michael Conforto this season).

The Mets don’t necessarily need to have deals signed before the end of the World Series (some players may want to wait until the new collective bargaining agreement is signed, anyway), but they should at least start talking with agents of players who are already in the organization. This, of course, would be honed in on guys who’d be a no-brainer keep under any president of baseball ops.

One of these players is Brandon Nimmo, who is entering his final year of arbitration in 2022. He said he’s “all ears” in terms of an extension. They could also look into buying out all of Pete Alonso‘s arbitration years with an extension this offseason. Seth Lugo may be a nice under-the-radar extension candidate, as he’s set to hit free agency after 2022, too. They could also look at restructuring Jacob deGrom‘s deal and tacking on a couple more lucrative years to make sure he spends the rest of his career with the Mets.

This all speaks to the need of having consistency from the front office year-over-year, as you can have these plans in place even as a season starts to wind down. (The Atlanta Braves are a good example, as they’ve locked up Charlie Morton and Travis d’Arnaud for next year before the offseason even starts.) While I wouldn’t expect any deals to be locked down in November, it’d behoove the Mets to at least get the conversations going.

They should be able to accomplish the first two items on this to-do list while be engaged in the third.