| At this time last year, the Mets were engulfed by the expectations — the now-or-never, World Series type of forecasts — reserved for contenders. Their roster was loaded, until the trade deadline arrived and they could theoretically add. The thought of a selloff didn't exist. The cost of these visions skyrocketed above $300 million, but that would be worth every cent if there was baseball in October and a celebration in Queens.
This year, though, will be different. When the Mets break camp and shift from Port St. Lucie to Citi Field for Opening Day, they won't carry the same contender label. They could win 80-plus games and steal a wild-card spot. Their season could also be all but over by the July 30 trade deadline, or it could putter … and putter … and putter along on the brink of playoff contention, not quite in and not quite out and — perhaps worse than either extreme — stuck in the middle.
So instead of a World Series quest serving as the Mets' most prominent storyline in 2024, it'll involve a collection of prove-it players at different stages of their careers, trying to leverage this 162-game marathon into an indisputable sample to kickstart what's next.
With eight days until Jose Quintana throws the first Mets pitch of 2024 against the Brewers, here are some of the Mets facing that reality.
Pete Alonso
 Pete Alonso's future with the Mets will be a topic of conversation throughout the season.
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It's a walk year that likely will end with a trip to free agency, given the comments and hints that Alonso and agent Scott Boras have — and haven't — dropped since last season ended. In a best-case scenario for both sides, Alonso produces an Aaron Judge-esque walk year, the Mets make the playoffs, he signs a massive long-term deal and the face of the franchise remains just that. The worst case: An injury, or a step back at the plate, prevents Alonso from replicating his 40-homer, 100-RBI standard from the past two seasons, Boras secures a stronger deal for Alonso once he hits the market and the Mets are left searching for the next focal point of their lineup.
The earliest signs from spring: Alonso has produced a .289 average and seven of his 11 hits have gone for extra bases across 15 Grapefruit League games. Alonso's future, more than anything, remains their most pressing storyline of the season.
Brett Baty
Both Baty and Mark Vientos received support from president of baseball operations David Stearns during his state-of-the-spring press conference last week, but given Vientos' relative inexperience at third base and Ronny Mauricio's recovery from a torn ACL, 2024 will mark Baty's chance to affirm his ability to serve as the Mets' everyday third baseman — both this season and into the future.
 Brett Baty has the opportunity to nail down the Mets' third-base job.
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Baty's slow spring start has been followed by hits in seven of the Mets' past nine exhibition games, punctuated by his second home run Tuesday evening. It doesn't appear as if Vientos will unseat him for regular reps in the infield — instead settling for at-bats at designated hitter, pending a spot on the final roster — so the window of opportunity appears open for the former first-round pick.
Tylor Megill
This spot in the rotation could be temporary. The timeline for Kodai Senga's recovery from a right shoulder strain remains murky, especially after the Mets revealed he might need an extra week or 10 days after March 15 — the three-week mark since his PRP injection — before starting to throw. Carlos Mendoza cautioned that it wasn't a setback. But, regardless of what the manager said, it's certainly a delay.
That should allow for Megill, who flashed some good and some bad in five spring appearances (3.45 ERA), to log some starts the first month or two of the season, and he could push for more opportunities if the Mets ever expanded to a six-man rotation after Senga and David Peterson (hip surgery) return. But Megill essentially has an extended audition to become a piece of the rotation that the Mets couldn't afford to remove.
Francisco Alvarez
A potential long-term contract extension would make him a Mets cornerstone for years to come, perhaps alongside Alonso depending on the solution to that conundrum.
 Francisco Alvarez's power potential should keep him behind home plate for the Mets for years to come.
AP
It might not happen this year — given the looming financial gymnastics for Stearns and Steve Cohen. But the first 40-homer season for Alvaraz would certainly help his case that the side should negotiate something soon.
The Mets, in general, to show they're better than 75 wins
There's a hierarchy to the NL East after the past few seasons, with the Braves and the Phillies — in that order — and the Nationals at the bottom. The Mets, at this stage of their rebuild, likely won't push either top team, but piecing together enough wins to leapfrog the Marlins (84-78 last year) in the standings would mark a first step toward likely rising above.500 and into the next phase of contending.
Austin Adams
In the short term, Austin Adams remains stuck in a competition for the Mets' final bullpen spots. It might happen. It might not. But as the 32-year-old reliever knows, things can change quickly and often. The Mets are his third team across the past three years — with an ACL recovery, elbow surgery and a fractured foot scattered around those various appearances.
Adams, with all this happening, keeps reckoning with the looming reality that he's running out of time to change the reputation that will follow his name long after he retires. It's unfortunate, he told The Post from the Clover Park clubhouse in Port St. Lucie last week, but it's the only thing that anyone seems to want to talk about with him: Adams set an MLB record by hitting 24 batters in just 52 ⅔ innings in 2021, and he doesn't know what caused it.
 Spring training non-roster invitee Austin Adams has struggled to shake off the reputation he gained when he hit 24 batters in 2021.
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"It happened," Adams said. "I mean, it is what it is, and unfortunately, it seems like that's the only thing people talk about. When I … look at my track record and before that, it was, 'Wow, this guy is really good, has a wipeout slider, good fastball, puts together a lot of strikeout percentages. If he could just really hone it in ...'
"Then I honed it in, and then took off from there and then got hurt, and then obviously in '21, really struggled with keeping the ball in the zone."
That year, he appeared in 65 games for the Padres. His ERA was 4.10. In 2019, he pitched in 29 games with the Mariners and even threw in some high-leverage spots until tearing his ACL near the end of the season. He hasn't had a truly normal season — that wasn't altered by injury recovery or the COVID-19 pandemic — since.
Adams' results haven't been encouraging this spring. He's compiled a 6.75 ERA across six outings as a non-roster invitee. He's working on pitch shapes with the fastball and with the slider, and hopefully at some point, it all meshes together.
"If I'm able to put a consistent season where it's health and just consistency of results on the field," Adams said, "I just feel like I can get back to where my talent is."
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The local magic of March When Saint Peter's stunned the college basketball world with wins against Kentucky, Murray State and then Purdue two years ago, the Peacocks were a program on the rise until they were left with basically nothing at all.
Head coach Shaheen Holloway departed for Seton Hall. Players transferred out and then in after Bashir Mason was hired from Wagner. A program that had forged an indefatigable identity around defense would have to, on paper, start from scratch again.
But in the moments that followed the Peacocks' Selection Sunday watch party, when they learned of their matchup Thursday against No. 2 seed Tennessee (9:20 p.m. ET, TNT) in the men's NCAA Tournament, it became clear that perhaps that identity never faded at all.
Their defensive metrics were strong again. They relied on a collection of really good players instead of revolving around one star. Mason thought "this entire thing is going very similar" to the Peacocks' group that sprinted to the Elite Eight. Guard Latrell Reid, who was on that 2022 roster, detected similarities, too.
 Two years after the school becoming a March Madness darling, Bashir Mason led Saint Peter's back to the NCAA Tournament.
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"It's gonna be a complete team effort every time we play, so I think that's not just about stopping one guy or one guy playing great," Reid said. "So that's what makes us good in tournament time, because your best players don't always show up, so you gotta have somebody that could come in and make an impact."
The Peacocks' leading scorer, Isiah Dasher, averaged 13.0 points per game. Only one other player topped double digits, and that was OK, because what really mattered to Saint Peter's — "our heart and soul, our pride," Reid said — unfolded on defense.
"We're not gonna give in," Reid said. "Keep fighting, throw punches. You're gonna get punched back, but we just won't stop. We're ready. We'll play anybody, anywhere. That's just the mentality we have."
So in a tournament that before it even began might be defined by the teams who didn't make it, Saint Peter's — and Wagner, Mason's old program — added a local taste to Selection Sunday with the chance to emerge as Cinderellas that everyone latches to.
Wagner ensured it would at least have a chance to upset No. 1-seed North Carolina later this week, knocking off Howard, 71-68, during its First Four matchup Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.
 Melvin Council Jr. (11) exults during Wagner's win Tuesday night in the First Four.
AP
The Seahawks survived a flurry of 3-point attempts in the final seconds that would have tied the game, but when all of those bounced off, their seven-man lineup escaped with the first NCAA Tournament win in program history behind Melvin Council Jr.'s 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
And there's still Saint Peter's. There's still Reid, who assistant coach Umar Shannon said "embodies" the Peacocks — and especially their defense. There's still Mason, the new architect who believes his program is a year ahead of schedule and who had people messaging him compliments about his calm demeanor in the final minutes of a tight conference championship game. There's still Armoni Zeigler, who will play against his brother, Zakai, in the Tennessee matchup. There's still Shannon, perhaps better known as the member of the Peacocks' staff who didn't leave for Seton Hall, though he still talks to Holloway and others daily.
"I just think I got a taste of what the business is," Shannon told The Post about when everyone left in 2022. "... I wanted to look at it as where I would have the biggest impact. I wasn't chasing a level, not chasing anything."
And there's still Corey Washington, the MAAC tournament MVP who averaged 14.3 points across the three games in Atlantic City last week after putting up 6.0 per game during the regular season. In the moments after their victory, Mason recalled how Washington — after his senior year at Sylvan Hills (Arkansas) High School — didn't have any offers and paid for his own flight to Jersey City for a tryout with the Peacocks.
 Latrell Reid sees similarities between this year's Saint Peter's team and the 2022 squad he was on that reached the Elite Eight.
Getty Images
It was a "Hail Mary," Washington told The Post on Sunday. There wasn't any panic, but he also didn't know what to expect. He knew after trying out that he couldn't leave, couldn't let the opportunity slip away.
Two years later, he's an integral piece of an embraceable Peacocks group trying to deliver another upset in March.
"We got different backgrounds, you got somebody going through this or through that, and we're gonna all just come together," Washington told The Post. "... I mean, that makes a brotherhood right there."
A necessary gamble The Jets started their offseason by revamping their offensive line, but Tuesday, they made perhaps their most pivotal — and riskiest— move, signing wideout Mike Williams to a one-year deal worth up to $15 million.
The 29-year-old has dealt with injuries throughout his career, including a torn ACL last year, but he's also produced two 1,000-yard campaigns in what, at times, was a dynamic Chargers offense.
 Mike Williams' 15.6 yards-per-reception average should make him an inviting target for Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
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And the Jets needed to add another receiver, too.
Garrett Wilson overcame inconsistent quarterback play to produce a second consecutive 1,000-yard season, but beyond that, Allen Lazard struggled. Randall Cobb struggled. Xavier Gipson struggled. Mecole Hardman was invisible to the point that he got traded to the Chiefs and was later accused of leaking gameplans. Corey Davis retired before the year even started.
So, yes, they needed someone. Williams was a gamble, but it's the all-in move the Jets needed with an aging Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.
Almost out of time When in-season trades become part of a team's transaction log, there's always a risk. That was the case when the Knicks acquired OG Anunoby in late December, as well as Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks in February — for better or for worse, they had a finite number of games to integrate the newcomers into their rotation and produce the desired results.
But at this point, the Knicks are running out of time to get everyone synced together before the postseason. Anunoby needed elbow surgery, but his return lasted just three games before his elbow flared up. Randle still hasn't played since dislocating his right shoulder in late January. Mitchell Robinson remains out after ankle surgery and hasn't appeared in a game since Dec. 8.
In the meantime, behind what The Post's Mike Vaccaro labeled career-best work by head coach Tom Thibodeau, they've become a team filled with players who embrace taking on increased minutes.
 As important as Miles McBride's 29 points were in the Knicks' win at Golden State, his defense on Steph Curry was just as vital.
AP
Miles McBride, making a rare start alongside Jalen Brunson instead of filling in at point guard due to an injury, played 46-plus minutes in the Knicks' win over the Warriors on Monday.
Josh Hart played all 48.
McBride's presence might've been the most encouraging, though. He was the primary defender tasked with containing Stephen Curry, who finished with 27 points on 8-of-20 shooting.
If the Knicks were healthy, with their preferred lineup intact, that role would've been reserved for Anunoby. He would've shadowed Curry, pestered Curry, done whatever he needed to do to make the superstar invisible. Instead, McBride, the former 2021 second-round pick, flashed that he could, if needed, take that role.
And Thursday, the Knicks will face the Nuggets. Someone will need to shadow Jamal Murray, pester Murray, do whatever is needed to make him invisible. They won't have Anunoby available. That's just the state of the Knicks at this point.
The development of McBride, though, could be promising.
What we're reading 👀 ⚾ The Post's Greg Joyce reports on how Yankees catcher Jose Trevino has taken a trio of the team's young pitchers under his wing and helped them refine their approaches.
🏒 The Rangers, in the midst of a hellish portion of the schedule, lost to the Jets after a shoddy second period. The Rangers' division lead has dwindled to two points.
🏒 The scrutiny on star goalie Ilya Sorokin is mounting as the Islanders lost their fifth straight game.
🏀 OK, this time the Nets are really finished: After a fourth straight loss, they're 4.5 games back of a play-in spot with 13 games left.
🏈 The Giants are set to meet with former All-Pro Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White, who's well-known to their decision-makers.
🏒 Chris Simon, the former Rangers and Islanders enforcer, has died at the age of 52. Simon's family said he died by suicide, and believes he suffered from CTE.
🏒 More sad news: Former NHLer Konstantin Koltsov, who was dating tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, is dead at 42 in an apparent suicide.
⚾ Jeff McNeil returned to action for the Mets.
⚾ What's going on with the coup in the MLB players union?
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