The team has come a long way from the Wilpon era, an 18-year run that left a frustrated fan base weary from what seemed like never-ending drama on and off the field. The Mets missed the playoffs in 15 of the years that the Wilpons had sole ownership of the club. There were memorable runs in 2006 and 2015, but the Wilpons’ investment in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme cast a shadow over the club’s finances and hampered the Mets’ ability to sign top free agents.

In the four-year Cohen era, the Mets have made the playoffs twice, the fan base heads into the offseason with optimism and last week when asked by reporters about free agency this winter David Stearns said that “pretty much the entirety of the player universe is potentially accessible to us.”