As a baseball team that plays in the game’s biggest media market like the New York Mets, every offseason is crucial, regardless of the current organizational direction.

For the present front-office regime, though, there will be even more pressure to make the right moves this winter to field not only a winning squad, but also one that’s bound for October. Despite Brodie Van Wagenen already entering his second full calendar year in charge, there will still be the sense of a fresh start going into 2020. We just don’t know exactly what that looks like yet because New York is still in the midst of choosing its next manager. Once to-do item is crossed off BVW’s list — which one would hope happens shortly after the World Series — the full attention will turn to the hot stove and shaping the roster.

The Mets have plenty of work to do on the heels of an 86-76 performance. However, there are many factors at play that’ll make the upcoming few months crucial to the immediate (and possibly long-term) future of the organization.

Making the “Right Choice” For Next Manager

Although the Mets aren’t the only club still dealing with an opening at manager, it certainly seems as if they’re putting extra work into the interview process than others. After all, New York is about to enter its third round of interviews, with Eduardo Perez, Carlos Beltran, and Tim Bogar among the people still getting interest.

Since Van Wagenen and the Mets decided to bypass competing for Joe Girardi‘s services, it’s almost as if the organization is going the extra mile to make sure the right choice is made.

That shouldn’t be surprising — they’re a club that has an intriguing young core and the roster has been constructed in such a way that they’re expected to compete right now. With that in mind, the Mets need to make sure the right person is brought on to steer the ship in a positive direction, especially if it ends up being another first-time manager. We all saw how an outside-the-box hire worked the last time with Mickey Callaway.

It’s not as if the Mets should shy away from making another first-time manager hire if that seems like the best fit. But based on how things have played out over the past couple weeks (i.e. the Phillies hiring Girardi), it needs to work.

Rest of the NL East

Outside of the Miami Marlins, the National League East division is looking like another potential heavyweight bout in 2020. Sure, the Phillies finished five games behind the Mets this past year, but they too have a roster with intriguing pieces in place. They also appear to have a front office and ownership that’s willing to make huge commitments for the sake of winning (signing Bryce Harper last year and having a desire to spend big again this winter).

Then there are the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves, two teams that finished comfortably ahead of the Mets in 2019. Their respective rosters are filled with young talent, and while each club has holes that need to be addressed this winter, they’ve shown the ability to take care of past needs in an appropriate fashion (like, you know, grabbing a top free agent).

The rest of the teams around the Mets in the NL East probably aren’t going to let their foots off the proverbial gas pedal, meaning New York has to find ways to get substantially better just to keep up.

The Apparent Small Step Forward

It was fun to watch BVW tell everyone to “Come get us” last winter. However, he learned the hard way about having to eat his words when things don’t work out just as he was projecting them to happen. Even with all the struggles New York encountered throughout the first few months of 2019, they still managed to put together an 86-win campaign, which was just their third winning season of the decade.

As fun as it was to watch the club go on that incredible second-half tear from July through the end of September, it’s still up for debate as to just how good the Mets actually are. How much better did this squad get between 2018 and 2019? Was their season-long performance just propped up by that dominant stretch in August? I’d like to hope they’re more like the second-half version of themselves than the first half, but we’ll have to wait and find out.

Either way, that second-half run makes it look like the Mets took a significant step forward from a season-long perspective. There’s going to be pressure to keep that feeling going into 2020, and a slow start will only increase that pressure.

Having to Thread the Needle

BVW wasn’t shy about reshaping New York’s roster last winter. That included trades in which the organization’s top prospects were sent away to other teams. This approach continued into the season when the Mets scooped up Marcus Stroman prior to the trade deadline.

According to MLB Pipeline, New York has a farm system that’s rated outside the top half of the league. It had already been depleted over the years with promotions happening, but deals like the one that netted the Mets Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz sure didn’t help from that perspective. And even a seemingly low-cost expenditure in Jed Lowrie creates a situation for the following year because they may need to get creative when it comes to getting J.D. Davis and Jeff McNeil into the lineup on a regular basis if a transaction doesn’t take place.

Taking talent from the farm system in order to aid the current big-league roster has its benefits, with one of them being a winning product that has an open competitive window. However, it also puts more pressure on the front office to make this all worthwhile especially when things don’t go according to plan.

There’s a chance the Mets may not be as competitive later on in the upcoming decade because of the moves made at the start of Van Wagenen’s tenure. If that does happen, it’ll be somewhat justified if those moves yield a championship banner in Queens in the near future. If it doesn’t, though, then it’ll probably all feel like a waste.