The biggest offseason challenges for the Mets this winter

Money can’t buy everything. If it could, Steve Cohen would have already bought the New York Mets a couple of World Series championships. Instead, he’s opening up his wallet for things one can actually purchase like free agents or Taylor Swift tickets for $80,000.

The Mets have the backing of the richest owner in the sport. It doesn’t mean they will never experience their share of challenges.

This winter, the Mets are facing quite a few of them. Can they get over each of these hurdles toward building a better team?

1) NY Mets challenge: Building a bullpen from scratch

Edwin Diaz is back. Drew Smith is also under contract. As for the rest of them, it’s a battle royale.

The Mets didn’t even start off with Diaz under contract either. They were able to extend him before he officially became a free agent. It was the smartest of moves to make. It has given fans some sense of ease.

There’s still a lot more work to be done. The Mets have been adding lesser players to the 40-man roster in hopes of one or two maybe working out. The rest will be for depth. No team can ever get through a season without having to summon up a couple of Triple-A arms.

The act of building a bullpen even with pieces in place is never easy. Relievers are hard to assess and impossible to predict. Among all of the challenges, this is one that they might accidentally do perfectly. It’s always possible they make all of the right moves and it ends up being a disaster.