ATLANTA — The 2021 Mets were mercifully pushed to the past tense Sunday with one last underwhelming performance to punctuate a brutal season.

A Braves team that won a fourth straight NL East title and will face the Brewers in the upcoming NLDS, used the Mets as a punching bag in a final tune-up for the postseason. The Mets lost, 5-0, at Truist Park and were headed back to Queens to collect belongings (some players flew to their home cities directly) and begin another offseason of upheaval.

The Mets finished 77-85, in third place, after leading the NL East for 103 days this season. No previous team to lead a division for that long had finished with a losing record. The Mets missed the playoffs for a fifth straight year and finished with a losing record for the fourth time during that stretch, under three different managers.

“We dealt with a lot of adversity this year, lots of ups and downs,” Francisco Lindor said. “I’ll think about all the things that need to get better, including myself — where I need to improve and I know I have got to improve in every aspect of the game, for sure.”

First on the agenda will likely be resolving manager Luis Rojas’ status. Team president Sandy Alderson last week indicated he planned to move quickly in that direction, before a new president of baseball operations is hired. Rojas’ two-year contract is set to expire, but the Mets hold a club option for 2022.

“As the manager you have to feel responsible for not winning enough games,” Rojas said. “You have got to feel responsible for not helping the team achieve the goal that was set at the beginning of the season. Managers get paid to win games, and we won less than we lost this year … you get caught in thoughts like this in the last game of the season when you don’t achieve your goal.”

Rojas added that he wasn’t sure when he would speak with Alderson about his future.

The Mets are 103-119 in two losing seasons under Rojas, who was elevated from quality control coach in January 2020 after Carlos Beltran departed the organization, without managing a game, in the fallout from the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing scheme. Rojas was praised by Alderson and team owner Steve Cohen for keeping the Mets in first place during a first half in which the team was besieged by injuries. But the Mets went 29-45 in the second half and barely managed to stay relevant in the September pennant race after falling behind the Braves and Phillies.

Alderson is also expected to decide quickly on the coaching staff. From that group, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner (whose expiring contract holds a club option for 2022) is the most likely to return based on the team’s success in that area this season, despite significant absences — including ace Jacob deGrom, who last pitched on July 7.

The team’s search for a president of baseball operations could take longer, as Alderson is expected to pursue big fish such as Theo Epstein, Billy Beane and David Stearns. Both Beane and Stearns are under contract, with Oakland and Milwaukee, respectively, and would require permission from their clubs to speak with the Mets. Epstein, who has won three World Series rings with the Red Sox and Cubs, is a free agent as a consultant for MLB.

Javier Baez, Michael Conforto, Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard are among the impending free agents on which the Mets must decide. The team will also be facing decisions on players under club control such as Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis.

“It was honestly really fun being around this group, being around these guys, especially [Lindor],” said Baez, who arrived at the trade deadline from the Cubs. “Everybody learned from him and wants to be like him. I’m thankful for the year that I had, that I could deal with the pressure of being a free agent and I had a good year.”