When we found out that Steve Cohen was buying the Mets, I was excited because Cohen’s wealth and business acumen had the potential to usher in a new era of Mets prosperity. It meant the end of settling for less and the return to bringing the top baseball players in the world to play in Queens. What I didn’t expect was the return of my favorite general manager, Sandy Alderson, but it seems that’s exactly what Cohen has in mind. How wonderful!

Just like Gandalf came back to save Middle-earth, Alderson has returned to take the Mets back to the postseason, where he led them in 2015 and 2016. The former Marine should help Cohen spend his money wisely, as he’s used to being in charged of small-market teams like the Athletics, Padres, and post-Madoff Mets. Not only did Alderson oversee a front office that drafted Michael Conforto, Dominic Smith, and David Peterson during his first stint in New York, but he also got great value in the trading of veteran players. Under Alderson, the Mets turned half a season of Carlos Beltran into Zack Wheeler and R.A. Dickey into Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud.

I’m not a fan of Brodie Van Wagenen, but he could be a good guy for Cohen to keep around because of his history as an agent. Van Wagenen knows what it’s like to be on the other side of contract negotiations and that could give New York the edge it needs to win battles for the best free agents.

No matter what the rest of the front office looks like, Cohen bringing in Alderson is a good sign that Cohen is going to trust baseball people and not meddle too much in baseball operations. Alderson is 72 years old and recently battled cancer. He probably wouldn’t return to baseball to work for an owner he didn’t like.

In other news, the Mets will not finish with a winning record in 2020. They lost to Tampa Bay 8-5 last night and now the best they can do is 29-31 if they win their remaining four games in Washington.

I’ve been saying something similar all season long. These Mets were too talented not to make the postseason. I still think they make it in a 162-game season even if the postseason format was the same as the one for 2019. With 100 more games to play, you can’t tell me the Mets finish behind Philadelphia, Miami, and San Francisco.

That’s all hypothetical, but the truth remains there is a lot of talent on board for the new regime to play with and even though the Mets don’t have the best farm system in the world, the future is bright because of all the young talent on the major league roster. Plus, Cohen has the resources he needs to keep that talent in New York.

Oh, here are my picks for tonight: Jaguars -3.0, South Alabama +6.5, Nuggets +6.0