The Mets got their swagger back just days before MLB’s much anticipated lockout went into effect.

Following a frenzy of free agent activity, featuring the blockbuster signing of Max Scherzer, the Mets like 29 other teams will experience a player transaction freeze and other headaches that accompany the league’s first work stoppage in 26 years and the ninth in MLB history. Club owners voted unanimously to lock out the players as the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement expired on Wednesday night. For an undetermined amount of time, team officials are unable to speak to players and make free agent signings or trades. Players are no longer allowed to use club facilities and arbitration hearings are also halted.

Steve Cohen, Billy Eppler, Sandy Alderson and the Mets were aggressive in the days leading up to the lockout. Mets brass signed four impact free agents in Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha and Scherzer. In doing so, the team significantly bolstered the lineup and decreased the number of uncertainties surrounding its rotation. In less than two weeks as Mets GM, Eppler advantageously used Cohen’s deep pockets to make the industry forget about the team’s circuitous front office search and remind the fan base about the possibilities that lie ahead when superstars come to Queens.

“Billy has done a great job since joining us two Fridays ago,” Cohen said on Wednesday. “Thanks to the work that he and the baseball operations group have done, we are a better team than we were last season.”

But the Mets are still a few key hirings and moves away from a successful offseason. And the lockout provides the Amazin’s with a unique opportunity to continue working on a major part of their checklist.

The 2021 Mets still need a manager and most of a coaching staff, and the club is able to continue contacting, interviewing and hiring individuals for their job openings during the lockout period. As of Wednesday, the Mets were still in the process of narrowing down a manager from a “wide list of candidates,” according to Eppler. He added the team expects to begin formally interviewing managerial candidates “very soon.”

“We’re walking through some of the criteria that we’re looking for in that manager,” Eppler said on Wednesday. “As we await that criteria, some of those names will be people we call and ask for permission on, or speak to, because they’re maybe not with a particular club right now.”

The Mets fired former manager Luis Rojas a day after the regular season ended. He turned in two losing seasons on the job, then landed on his feet by accepting the position of Yankees’ third base coach earlier this offseason. The Mets have not publicly given any indication of the top names on their managerial search or the qualities and criteria that are most important to them, but there are some clues as to the direction the team will go. Eppler worked with former Angels skipper Brad Ausmus for one season in Los Angeles. The Mets GM also has connections to Astros bench coach Joe Espada and former Yankees third baseman Eric Chavez dating back to Eppler’s days in the Bronx.

Besides their managerial vacancy and a handful of coaching staff openings, including hitting coach, the Mets still have several roster questions to address.

It’s unclear who will be the team’s starting third baseman in 2021 and the Mets could use another consistent right-handed bat in the lineup. The Mets showed interest in Kris Bryant in the days before the lockout and were said to be among one of many teams still in the mix for the third baseman. Bryant has been on the Mets’ radar at least dating back to last winter and in some ways represents a white whale for Cohen. The owner has shown Mets fans in the first year of his regime that he’ll go after what he wants, even if it comes at a high cost. The Mets were interested in Bryant, whose agent is Scott Boras, at the trade deadline before he chose the Giants. Bryant will now wait until the lockout is over before signing with a team.

The obvious in-house option for third base became Escobar, a switch hitter, when the Mets signed him to a two-year, $20 million deal. Escobar played a combined 96 games at the hot corner for the Diamondbacks and Brewers last year, but across his 10 major-league seasons, he has -6 Defensive Runs Saved at third base. He cranked 28 home runs and posted a 109 OPS+ in 2021. Escobar on Wednesday said he prefers to play third base but would be open to other infield positions. With Javy Baez’s departure to the Tigers, it’s possible Escobar makes more sense at second base.

The futures of Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith also remain uncertain as player transactions remain frozen during the lockout. Davis last year dealt with a nagging hand injury that required surgery in October, and it’s possible that rehab will impact his readiness at the start of the season. McNeil struggled mightily at the plate in 2021, and he may be competing for a second base job with Robinson Cano and Escobar, depending on what the Mets decide to do at third base. Smith, who played 111 games in left field last season, has a less obvious starting role with the acquisitions of Marte and Canha. McNeil, Davis and Smith could end up staying on the team as key depth pieces, or some could become trade targets whenever the lockout is over.

Eppler and the rest of the Mets front office have the following weeks, and potentially months, of this lockout period to name a manager, fill a coaching staff, and solidify their roster plan. Much like the rest of their offseason, the lockout won’t be a slow stretch for the Queens ball club.