I spent most of the offseason defending Sandy Alderson’s decision to essentially go into the 2017 season with the same exact offense they ended the 2016 season with – minus Kelly Johnson.

Trust me, while I tend to lean on the pessimistic side when it comes to the Mets, I wasn’t blowing smoke at you or just reading the situation with a pair of those proverbial rose-colored glasses. Not at all.

The Mets were an offensive juggernaut from the middle of August until the end of the regular season in 2016 once the team was relatively healthy again. They had the second best scoring offense in major league baseball. So what was wrong with doubling down on that?

The way I saw it, as long as the Mets re-signed Yoenis Cespedes we were golden. The fact that we ended up keeping Jay Bruce only heightened my expectations for the new season. I mean, come on, what the hell is wrong with having an extra 30-homer bat on the team?

Add to that offense a top-three starting rotation and one of the best bullpens in the league. So I had no problem predicting 95 wins for the Mets in 2017 and calling them the best team in the NL East.

Fast-forward three weeks into the season and clearly things have not panned out exactly the way I envisioned it. The injuries started piling up early and often. That seven-man starting rotation I was bragging about in February, was quickly down to five. And worse yet, the inability for our remaining starters to work deeper into games is already taxing the bullpen only 17 games into the season. It’s already cost the Mets a few games.

However, the biggest problem with this Mets team by far isn’t the starting pitching or the bullpen… It’s a lackluster offense that still struggles to manufacture runs unless it’s via the longball. And with two of the team’s top home run hitters in Cespedes and Lucas Duda currently on the shelf, the Mets are about as toothless right now as the Abominable Snow Monster of the North after Hermey the Elf and Yukon Cornelius got done with him.

I’m very disappointed at the plate approach most of the players have exhibited. The patience is severely lacking and all those all-or-nothing uppercut swings are exasperating.

I love Asdrubal Cabrera more than anyone, but with the team down only two runs and desperately in need of a baserunner to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning on Saturday, he took three massive uppercut swings, striking out on three pitches. I looked at that and saw it as a microcosm of why the team’s offense is failing so badly.

I turned off the TV after listening to manager Terry Collins justify and accept this team wide approach.

“Hey, we’re a home run hitting team. That’s who we are,” Collins said after their 3-1 loss to the Nationals. “We’re gonna go up their swinging and we’re gonna pile up a lot of strikeouts. The problem is that the home runs haven’t been coming lately.”

I could rip that philosophy to shreds right now, but I don’t want to turn this post into a 5,000 word thesis. Plus I doubt Sandy Alderson subscribes to that notion and I’m sure he cringed when Collins said it.

Look, it’s way to early to hit the panic button and that old baseball cliche applies: You’re never as bad as you look when you’re losing, or as good as you look when you’re winning.

The Mets have had to endure some challenges to begin the season especially in the injury department. David Wright, Brandon Nimmo, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo all began the year on the DL. Now they’ve been joined by Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores, while Travis d’Arnaud and Yoenis Cespedes remain active but are mostly unavailable.

Jeurys Familia finally returned from his suspension but he’s not himself yet and needs to shake off the rust. That 16-inning win against the Miami Marlins turned out to be a real gut punch for this team, and since then they’ve lost seven of eight games.

Still, all teams face adversities and that doesn’t mean you sit on your hands and do nothing. And I’m not saying that’s what the Mets front office is doing. For all we know, they could be working the phones trying to find a solution at third base as we speak.

A few of our readers keep bringing up Kelly Johnson, who is still available as a free agent. However, I’m not so sure that KJ is going to come in and solve all our problems. That said, at this point he couldn’t hurt.

I would look more to our farm and promote Gavin Cecchini to come up and play at second base while sliding Neil Walker over to third base. Maybe Cecchini can be that same spark plug that Michael Conforto was in 2015, when he replaced Michael Cuddyer in left field. What I like about Cecchini is his .383 on-base percentage in 568 Triple-A plate appearances. God knows we can use some of that.

At this stage of the game, whether or not Michael Conforto should play everyday in no longer in question. Conforto should be in the lineup for all games regardless of who’s on the mound – and that holds true even when Duda and Cespedes return to the lineup. Bat him leadoff and just leave him there. If it costs Duda and Curtis Granderson some playing time – so be it.

With the Mets on the verge of getting swept by the Nationals and three more games looming against them next weekend, Collins and Alderson need to give this team a kick in the pants.

Promoting Cecchini and installing Conforto permanently at the leadoff spot aren’t necessarily game-changers. But those two moves are easy to facilitate and it might provide the jolt this team needs right now.

I would even take it one step further and release Jose Reyes to make a statement and clear the spot for Cecchini on the roster. We don’t owe anything to Reyes and he’s become a drag on this team. It will send the clubhouse a message that Collins has often touted – “Keep producing and you’ll keep playing. Stop producing and there will be consequences.”

In seven days, the calendar turns to May and the Nationals have already opened up a 4 1/2 game lead on the Mets, who at 8-10 are off to their worst start since 2011.

In six of our last seven losses the gap was only two runs or less. All those games were winnable. As I wrote earlier, it’s way too early to hit the panic button. However, it’s never too early to improve the team even if it’s only incrementally.  The worst thing the Mets can do right now is nothing. Here’s to a win tonight against the Nats and better days ahead. LGM