Gutsy Mets did New York proud with spectacular October surprise — and the future is bright

LOS ANGELES — Take a bow, Mets. You’ve done us proud.

On only above average overall talent but extraordinary heart and guts and a marvelous ability to overcome leads and odds, you wrote a wonderfully exciting script for October.

Unfortunately, the story was cut a couple games short of that fairytale ending. There will be no Subway Series. But there should be no heartache here either.

The Mets have nothing to be ashamed of. They played great October baseball against three teams with more wins, a higher standing and far greater expectations.

They did it almost all on the edge, but you can only live for so long on the edge.

You can only stage so many comebacks before the burden becomes overwhelming, the task too tall.

You can only win so many elimination games as a team allegedly in transition before the jig is up, and it’s time to start preparing for next season. You can’t keep coming back game after game.

That just doesn’t happen. Not in the major leagues it doesn’t.

When you’re a team that had to wait until the last day of the season (actually the day after the last day) to qualify for this derby, you can only keep the Shohei Ohtani/Mookie Betts Dodgers down for so many games before they break out and run away, which they did in beating the Mets 10-5 in the deciding Game 6 of the National League Championship Series to reach the World Series against the Yankees.

The Yankees got another break. They don’t love facing lefties (the Dodgers are almost all right) and didn’t beat the Mets once. But that’s just water under the Whitestone now.

Major League Baseball got the biggest break of all. After enduring Arizona vs. Texas (a draw to no one outside the dust bowl), now MLB gets its dreamiest marquee matchup. Ohtani and Betts vs. Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. The 2024 World Series is like a convention of superstars. It’s a dream scenario to top a wonderful derby.

The Mets were a big part of this postseason from heaven. From Pete Alonso’s wild-card winning home run that turned almost certain defeat into victory to Francisco Lindor’s grand slam that sent Philly packing to Mark Vientos’ slam right here in Dodger Stadium that gave the Mets the upper hand, temporarily anyway, before reality finally set in.

The Mets have nothing to regret. The Dodgers are the better team. Even with two-thirds of their better starters out, they are the more talented roster.

The Mets had their chances in the deciding game. They left multiple runners on base in many innings. They can dream about what might have been. But realistically, they were outscored 37-7 in the four NLCS losses. So no sense thinking they should have won. That’s just not true.

The Mets managed the game appropriately, like the must-win game it was. Sean Manaea, not at his best, lasted only two-plus innings, his shortest outing since before he was a Met. Edwin Diaz entered to face Ohtani to start the bottom of the fourth inning. Rookie manager Carlos Mendoza did what he could. His choices, and almost all their choices, were right.

There was only one obvious thing I would have changed about their postseason calls. Kodai Senga should have been left on the workout fields in Port St. Lucie. He hadn’t pitched in months, and it showed. (He got roughed up again Sunday, but in his one NLCS start, my 78-year-old cousin Agnes, which happens to be Senga backward, would have done better; and yes, I do have a Cousin Agnes.)

But that’s a minor gripe for a postseason that was the wonderful run none of us expected. Although they won’t wind up the winner in this derby, they provided many of the most memorable moments.

They were the longest lasting of the trio of Cinderella stories, staying past the Royals and Tigers. Some might not like that characterization. But while their payroll technically is $340 million, they also have a record $90M in “dead money,” thanks to a wild earlier spending spree.

With the dead money coming off the books next year, look for the Mets to makes some big moves this winter and to put a little more thought into it than they did a few years back. There will be no more record contracts for aging Hall of Famers. The money will be better spent.

The Mets have to figure out if they can come to agreement with home-grown slugging star Pete Alonso. They should want to bring back Manaea after he inevitably opts out, and they should look into the same for Luis Severino and perhaps Jose Quintana, too.

They’ll need to rebuild a pitching staff with a lot of expiring contracts. But fortunately, they have just the duo to keep this going and to get back here year after year. Cohen has the wherewithal and he’s wised up quickly, and Stearns should do even better once the wraps are off and he has a key to the vault.

The past few weeks were a spectacular surprise. The future promises to be even better.