Just a disclaimer, since you just saw my title: I acknowledge the Mets have a lot of heavy lifting to do this winter. But, I also think that New York has a solid core of players that should be built around, with some promising names on the horizon. If they make the appropriate moves, we could see some competitive baseball in Queens in 2019.

This year, we saw the emergence of Brandon Nimmo, we saw Michael Conforto bounce back from major shoulder surgery and have a splendid second half and we saw Jeff McNeil seemingly come out of nowhere to become a legit second baseman and high on-base percentage guy.

Couple that with the positive strides Amed Rosario made and Peter Alonso right on the horizon and the Amazin’s have several offensive guys that can do some serious damage.

The rotation is in possibly the best shape we have seen it since 2015, so yes, there are a lot of positives for next season.

With what I’ve just said, I acknowledge the Mets’ need for a catcher, bullpen pieces and most importantly, depth pieces so we don’t have to see Ty Kelly and Matt den Dekker get regular reps in the middle of the season.

The outfield without Yoenis Cespedes will likely be fine, considering the presence of Conforto and Nimmo along with Juan Lagares and Jay Bruce.

The rest of the infield is more or less set, with Todd Frazier manning the hot corner for one more year and Andres Gimenez right on the horizon.

But catcher is a position that is still uncertain. The Mets could really benefit themselves by seriously pursuing either Yasmani Grandal or Wilson Ramos this winter.

Offensively, with the addition of a catcher, the Mets are in pretty good shape. Same with the rotation as I touched upon above.

However, New York needs to make it a priority to bolster its bullpen this offseason. We saw positive strides from Daniel Zamora, Drew Smith and Tyler Bashlor in the second half, and Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman held the fort down most of the season. Beyond that, though? There’s a lot of uncertainty.

This winter, there are many good relievers on the market. In today’s baseball climate, though, they are going to be highly sought after. The Mets can absolutely not sit on their hands again like they did last winter when they only signed Anthony Swarzak.

While I doubt they pursue Craig Kimbrel, there are guys out there like Cody Allen, Kelvin Herrera, Adam Ottavino, Andrew Miller and Brad Brach among others that should be pursued.

When it comes down to it, we all know the Mets are flawed and don’t make the best decisions. This offseason is really dependent on how much the new GM has to spend, just like it always is.

In a perfect world, New York would make several bullpen acquisitions, get a shiny new catcher and stack their team with depth. That may or may not happen, but even if they sign a catcher and one or two bullpen pieces, they have a lot of incumbent pieces who can help the team succeed.

It’s going to be a tough division matching up with Atlanta and to a lesser extent the Phillies, but with two wild card spots, anything can happen.

So yes I’m cautiously optimistic for next year. Let’s just hope the team makes some appropriate moves to help complement the current pieces.