The Mets just lost to the Dodgers, the franchise Steve Cohen almost bought more than a decade ago, and the organization he most wanted to emulate since buying the Mets.

So a key to the Mets’ immediate future: How closely do Cohen and David Stearns think the club is following the Dodgers’ trajectory? Is the run to NLCS Game 6 a sign that they have significantly closed the gap on the perennial championship contenders? If so, should this be a go-for-it offseason similar to the Dodgers’ $1 billion-plus bonanza last season?

Or do they see 2024 as just a positive step in a year kissed by the fortunes of OMG/Grimace and that the gap is still too big to really go all in? As one NL executive noted, the Dodgers actually have a very strong pitching staff on the IL, but “a pitching machine” that continues to offer weapons to help them reach a World Series.

The Mets are trying to replicate that, but it’s taking years and they’re not there yet.

So if that’s the case, should this be a second straight offseason of measured moves designed not to clog future payrolls/rosters or cost them good prospects in trade, but still enough quality to boost playoff chances of the Mets to uphold?

The Dodgers’ billion-dollar offseason was built primarily around Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a trade and extension for Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernandez, a major injury problem.

The Mets version? What about Juan Soto in Ohtani mega-signing mode, Corbin Burnes as the big free-agent starter/Yamamoto, a trade and extension for big injury concern Garrett Crochet, and Tanner Scott in the Hernandez, we have more money and we can do it, so we will do it.

You could argue that even if the Mets still see a big gap between them and the Dodgers, now would still be the right time for this spending. Because it would increase the Mets’ chances of winning the NL East for years to come, really increase their chances of making the playoffs annually, and provide protection for continued infrastructure growth in a way that the aging Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer did not.

By the way, both Scherzer and Verlander are free agents… Okay, just kidding.

But Scherzer and Verlander are now completely off the Mets’ books. Still, even with that and 11 free agents potentially on their postseason rosters, a Dodgeresque splurge sees Cohen zoom well past the top luxury tax threshold and get another $300 million.

Does Cohen want to do that? He has shown that his baseball team is like his art collection: he is willing to spend whatever it takes to get what he wants. But he has also praised Stearns and, from all indications, listened to what his president of baseball operations has advised. Of course, no one should just admit that Stearns wants to do this on the cheap.

He was hired to be to the Mets what Andrew Friedman has been to the Dodgers: a guy who got the best out of the least in Tampa Bay/Milwaukee and can now combine that with the ability to shop at the highest level. Remember, even in an offseason of relative austerity, the Mets had the same offer ($325 million, which meant an additional post fee of $50.6 million) for Yamamoto as the Dodgers.

And I can’t get something out of my head that Brandon Nimmo told me when the Mets clinched a postseason berth in Atlanta. He revealed that he told Stearns he was “a great architect.”

“It means he has done a good job of putting the right people in the right place,” Nimmo said. “That’s very important to where Steve and Alex (Cohen) want to take this team and this organization. They don’t want to be the other team in New York anymore. They want to be respected more than that.”

The best way to not be stepbrothers to the Yankees would have been to beat them in the World Series and then take Soto away. Half of that is still possible. And Steve Cohen should try it.

I really think Soto loved being a Yankee, and that, all things being equal (or close to it), he would stay. But how close? Aaron Judge had stronger ties to the Yankees and agreed to a deal before fully exploring how far the Giants and Padres could go. I suspect this client of Scott Boras will find out just how far Cohen is willing to go.

Again, consider Yamamoto at $375 million. Cohen went all in on a pitcher despite higher injury rates while also being an MLB mystery. And all because he was only 25.

Soto turns 26 on Friday and celebrates in Game 1 of the World Series. There are no mysteries with him. He has shown he can play in New York and October. He is an offensive culture changer as the entire lineup sees how tenaciously he handles every at-bat. He wants to be historically great, so I don’t think money will cause him to get out of shape. He has a high baseball IQ.

Despite all that, the Yankees want to keep him. Heck, every team should want him and many will bid for him. But I believe Hal Steinbrenner is serious about taking the Yankees off a $300+ million payroll, which is why he’ll probably say “Uncle” in a mano-a-mano bidding war with Uncle Stevie. But will Cohen pull out all the stops? He should.

Anyway, here are a few other important issues:

– What to do with Pete Alonso? To some extent, Stearns was hired to put logic over emotion. He knows as much as the fans love Alonso, and as big as the win against the Brewers is, Alonso’s next six years will almost certainly be less sustainable and productive than the six Alonso just had. He’s 30 and an awkward athlete. There is a right price for its strength, durability and icon status. But it’s far less than he’ll aim for after turning down seven years at $158 million midway through the 2023 season.

The reality is that Mark Vientos had the season Alonso needed to put full pressure on the Mets. And Vientos, for almost the minimum salary, can stay in third place or move to first in 2025 and give Brett Baty/Ronnie Mauricio a chance to duke it out in third place, or maybe ask this question: would you consider Alonso would you rather re-sign him and get him first? and Vientos in third place for the next few years (including DH) or move Vientos to first place and sign Alex Bregman for third place? Could you bring in Hernandez, a free agent, once the Dodger season is over to play outfield/DH and provide much of what Alonso does on a much shorter deal?

– Who is Kodai Senga? Have Tylor Megill and David Peterson earned the right to permanently join the 2025 rotation? There’s enough uncertainty there that the Mets need to add three starters.

Are they treating Paul Blackburn internally after his spinal cord injury? How close to the majors are their two starting players with the highest ceiling, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean? (Christian Scott – Tommy John surgery – will miss next year).

Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana and Luis Severino are all free agents. The Mets could try a reunion with Manaea and/or Severino in particular for several years. They both should and probably will make the qualifying bid. But the Mets, and free agent Jose Iglesias, will have to come to terms with the fact that this wasn’t all a truly positive year.

On the outside, Stearns has insider knowledge. He had Burnes in Milwaukee, he also had words with Burnes in Milwaukee during an arbitration hearing. So he will have definitive feelings about whether he will reunite. If not, Max Fried is the kind of athletic, cerebral starter who you’d think could age well, as long as you don’t consider his 2024 left forearm neuritis a long-term problem.

Crochet will be very available. The Mets now have collateral to get him. The southpaw has two years of control and is difficult to hit. He also doesn’t have a track record as a starter staying healthy.

Are the Mets trying to take a one-year flier like the one with Manaea and Severino, designed to allow a pitcher to rebuild his value? If so, Walker Buehler and Shane Bieber are enticing. I assume Nathan Eovaldi would want two years, but I have excessive faith in him.

As for the reclamation project, Jordan Montgomery just experienced disaster in Arizona, so much so that owner Ken Kendrick all but said he wanted him out of town. To get rid of the $22.5 million they are owed in 2025, would the Diamondbacks take on the $33.5 million that Jeff McNeil has allocated over the next two years? If I were the Mets, I’d try that.

— Free agency/injury leaves Edwin Diaz, Jose Butto (who can still start) and Reed Garrett as the only safeties for the ’25 pen. Stearns has shown that he can improve the lofts in no time. But he should try Scott’s luxury item. It would provide two elements the Mets desperately need: a caddy/insurance for Diaz and a dominant left-handed reliever.