Despite being tied for the best record in baseball and owning a 1-0 series lead in the National League Division Series entering last Thursday night’s game two, 2006 is not a must-win season for the New York Mets.

Just three years ago, the Mets finished in last place for the second season in a row, ending up with an abysmal a 66-95 record. One season later in 2004, the Mets made one of the worst trades in MLB history, infamously surrendering their top prospect, Scott Kazmir, for the oft-injured, rarely on target Victor Zambrano. Though 2004 saw the Mets climb out of the cellar into fourth place, the Amazin’s, as Jonah Keri of Baseball Prospectus wrote in August of that season, in an article titled “Meet the Mets: A Decade Without a Plan,” were still in disarray:

“When you get down to it, the Mets have made ill-fated move after ill-fated move, season after season … They’ve dealt away top young talent for veteran mediocrities at the trade deadline … They’ve overpaid big-name, overrated free agents … They’ve ruined the careers of phenoms and mismanaged their way out of opportunities. Even when they’ve done things right … they’ve usually found ways to screw it up.”

It is for precisely the reasons listed above and for the fact that all of those failures have been remedied that 2006, win or lose in the playoffs, will always be remembered as an incredible, successful season for the Mets.

The Mets’ transformation started at the top only months after Keri wrote his article, when Omar Minaya was hired as General Manager. Under Minaya’s watch, no Mo Vaughns have been traded for and no declining 35-year-old Rick Reeds have been handed three year contracts worth over $21 million.

Minaya and his team have acted shrewdly. The $100 million the Mets are spending this season on marquee players such as Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez is going so much farther than the nearly $120 million the Mets spent on that ill-fated 2003 season, because the front office finally has a concept of direction.

On top of the Mets’ spending power, many of the team’s key pieces, like Beltran, and 23-year-old All-Stars Jose Reyes and David Wright should not decline any time in the near future. Therefore, the Mets are not poised to fade off as their previous playoff team in 2000 did in the following seasons, so there will be other chances for the Mets to win it all in the coming seasons.

Overcoming the abhorrent mismanagement of the past, finally becoming relevant again in a town that has been ruled by the Yankees for the past decade and recapturing an NL East Crown not worn for almost two decades makes 2006 a banner year for the Mets franchise.

When put in perspective with the state of the Mets just a few years ago, there should be no disappointment for the Shea-faithful if the Mets do not end up World Champions, not because they are not capable of doing so, but because it really doesn’t matter this season, considering how great the state of affairs currently is in Queens and that it should remain in this way for some time.