Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Given the Mets’ humiliating collapse over the last month which saw a team that once held a 10.5-game division lead over the defending champion Braves dominated by an 89-win team on national television, it’s hard to think of the 2022 season as one in which nearly everything for the Mets went right.

And yet, on closer inspection, absent two baffling weekends in Atlanta and Queens, this year’s team really did play up to its full potential, and then some. A 35 year-old Carlos Carrasco turned in a healthy, productive season for the first time in years. Taijuan Walker avoided a repeat of last year’s second-half collapse. Jeff McNeil bounced back from a career-worst season to win a batting title. Max Scherzer battled a nagging oblique problem and Starling Marte’s bat was sorely missed in September, but the team’s key pieces otherwise stayed remarkably healthy.

But the “glass half-full” view of the 2022 Mets closely mirrors the “glass half-empty” perspective for the Mets in 2023 and beyond. In truth, it’s hard to imagine how the Mets can actually emerge from this upcoming offseason a better baseball team when merely keeping together the current roster could require a payroll approaching $350 million. Key contributors are old and set to become more expensive in the years to come as the last age out of arbitration eligibility. The closest the current roster has to a youth movement are 27 year-olds Pete Alonso and David Peterson.

There’s a reason why, even with a seemingly-endless fortune upon which he can draw, owner Steve Cohen envies the Los Angeles Dodgers’ approach to building a perennial winner, one that pairs an unbelievably deep farm system churning out cheap future stars with high-priced free agent and trade acquisitions. Cohen may be the richest man in baseball, but not even he can build a dynasty with money alone. It’s simply impossible in today’s game.

One doesn’t need to look to the West Coast for a model of balanced, sustainable roster-building. The Braves set themselves up to be championship contenders for the next decade by signing nearly their entire core to team-friendly, long-term contract extensions. Even in the middle of another playoff run, they inked future ace Spencer Strider this week to a six-year contract that will ensure his salary doesn’t balloon beyond what Atlanta can afford.

Many words will be written here and elsewhere this winter on Billy Eppler’s decision not to be more aggressive at the trade deadline. Giving Tomás Nido and James McCann a combined 500 plate appearances on a team that ostensibly had World Series aspirations really was an episode in front office malpractice. Still, Eppler’s desire to hold on to the organization’s blue chip prospects may arguably look better once the initial shock and anger over the last few weeks of embarrassing baseball begin to fade. We can quibble with who should or shouldn’t be untouchable in a division chase, but neither the Braves nor Dodgers became perennial juggernauts through desperation moves each July.

Cohen’s deep pockets and willingness to do whatever it takes to win will likely keep the Mets in playoff contention every year going forward, and for that we should be both excited and grateful. But money only goes so far, even in baseball. Now comes the hard part for Eppler and Cohen: building a farm system that can feed a consistent winner and a front office with the creativity and foresight to lock up young stars early on team-friendly deals.

The good news is this year’s Mets largely did not mortgage the future to win 101 games. Little of last winter’s spending bonanza looks like dead weight heading into 2023. The Chris Bassitt trade looks fine in retrospect. This year’s failure was not a case of burning every remaining asset for one last chance at a title.

But the 2022 Mets demonstrated both the potential and the limits to building a winning baseball team on the fly through free agency and the team will face some very difficult choices in the coming months as a result. Thankfully, Cohen and company seem to understand this.

Next year’s team will be good, potentially very good. As tough a task as the one ahead of Billy Eppler is, the team he ultimately puts together will be heavily favored to return to the postseason. But dethroning the Braves and Dodgers will require more than just another ticket to October and the hope of a little timely magic. And bringing a championship back to Queens will require more than just a blank check.