Let’s get real here for a second: when was the last time you felt happy with or truly content about being a Mets fan?

I asked myself this on Wednesday morning after continuing to see the fallout of Noah Syndergaard signing a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels. My first thought was, well, probably the trade deadline. While New York didn’t get everything it needed, I was jacked up about Javier Báez coming to Flushing. That was still surrounded by an impending second-half collapse, though.

The answer I landed on? The All-Star break. The Mets were in first place, Pete Alonso had just won his second straight Home Run Derby title, and Kumar Rocker inexplicably fell to New York at 10th overall in the first-year player draft. At that point in time, life was good. Sure, the Mets had some issues to fix, but with a couple of weeks before the deadline, it wasn’t outrageous to think they’d do what was necessary to get this club over the hump and back into October.

Not so much. Between that, a complete tailspin out of first place, the thumbs-down fiasco, not signing Rocker, and taking months to find a general manager — among plenty of other things I’d rather not recount — it’s been a rough few months for Mets fans. Syndergaard rejecting a qualifying offer he appeared grateful to get in order to play elsewhere was the straw that broke the camel’s back. At least, that’s what it looks like on Twitter, which we all know totally mirrors real life.

Did news of Thor officially leaving Queens sting? Well, yes — of course it did.

Did it sting a little extra because of the comments he made after his final appearance of the season? You bet. Why does this really hurt so much, though? For me, it’s because he was one of the last pieces left on the Mets’ roster from their 2015 World Series run, and one of the final pieces of that vaunted rotation we were all giddy about years ago. And, just like that, he’s gone, with only Jacob deGrom left (at least he’s the best of them all?).

It really stinks to see Thor leave, but you know what? He’s human. It seems like he changed his mind, and had good reasons for it happening. Once he came to that decision, there was no turning back. We’ve already seen what life without him in the rotation is like since he’s thrown a total of two innings since 2019. His not accepting the qualifying offer certainly makes New York’s rotation “depth” look…questionable:

In reality, Syndergaard returning for 2022 wouldn’t have solved all the Mets’ rotation issues — they would’ve needed to keep adding anyways.

Moving forward, it’s appropriate for the Mets to take a line for late Raiders owner Al Davis: “Just win, baby.” Of course, it’s impossible to win right now since it’s the middle of November (and “winning the offseason” is overrated), but New York just needs to start taking action toward improving for 2022.

Is it still early in the offseason? Yes — the final game of the World Series was just over two weeks ago, but this won’t be like any other offseason thanks to the looming threat of a lockout when the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on December 1st. Despite that, we’ve seen the Detroit Tigers jump the market by signing Eduardo Rodriguez to a five-year deal, while the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t even want to let José Berríos hit the open market next winter.

All of this stuff has happened…without the Mets officially having a general manager in place. As of Monday night, it sounded like a deal would become official with Billy Eppler at any moment, and nothing has happened since. David Lennon of Newsday reported that an announcement could be coming on Friday, and if that’s the case, man it’s not a moment too soon. New York’s search for new front-office personnel has dragged on long enough — it needs to be over for now so everyone can move on. And I’m saying that in the nicest way possible.

Eppler will have his hands full upon joining the organization, but he’ll be doing it with plenty of payroll flexibility, which is a plus. However, this dude needs to hit the ground running. There shouldn’t be a need to get settled before figuring out how to approach the rest of offseason. Sandy Alderson and company already have an idea on what they’d like to do, as we’ve seen them connected to various free agents and speaking to the representation for players like Kris Bryant and Báez at the GM Meetings. There’s no way those plans haven’t already been shared with Eppler, and if he wasn’t on board with it, both sides wouldn’t be finalizing a deal.

The Mets have important roster questions to answer this winter. Lots of them. After the past few months everyone associated with the Mets has endured, the best thing the front office can do is make a much-needed move to bolster the roster before a potential lockout happens. Seriously, can you imagine what it’ll feel like if everything in baseball halts and New York’s roster looks exactly the same as it does today? That’s the recipe for a real freakin’ long offseason.

I usually don’t mind a slow-and-steady approach, but it appears that while the Mets have fumbled a number of things, certain opportunities have passed them by. Get Eppler officially on board, and start making moves. This roster isn’t going to improve itself.