ARLINGTON, Va. — Look, you can go searching for dark clouds all you want. You can play the woe-is-me game until well past closing time. You can wait anxiously for other shoes to drop, for skies to fall, for the injured list to become more crowded than the old waiting list for Giants’ season tickets.

But, honestly, what fun is that?

Isn’t it better as a Mets fan to simply channel the words general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has been peddling for months now, the ones that speak of new times, new expectations, a brand-new way of doing business? And, more to the point: Hasn’t he shown you that he, at the least, is true to his word?

From the start, he said getting Jacob deGrom signed to a long-term deal was his primary offseason ambition, and deGrom will be a Met for a minimum of four more years. From the start he insisted he would bring north the 25 players who most proved they belonged during spring training and wouldn’t be shackled by service-time finagling; Thursday, the Mets’ starting first baseman will be Pete Alonso.

From the moment the first microphone was thrust in his face in his new job, the GM has insisted his goal was to make the Mets better not only tomorrow, but now, and backed up that sentiment by insisting they are the team to beat in the NL East in 2019, and he did this before he had a complete understanding of what that team would look like.

Wednesday, 24 hours before the Mets’ season opener against the Nationals, if he didn’t double down, he also didn’t try to hedge his bet.

“Well, look, you’re not going to get a different answer from me now,” Van Wagenen said in a conference room at the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City, where he’d just made formal the agreement with his ace pitcher. “I believe we will win, I believe we’re capable of winning, and I’m looking forward to winning every day we have a chance to play a game.”

As a fan of any team, you are entitled to your skepticism and your cynicism, the hard-earned carousel of baggage you carry in your soul from all the times that team fractured your heart. As a Mets fan, you merely have more license to share those feelings whenever you happen to feel them.

But if Van Wagenen has proven anything across his first five months on the job, it is this: He is neither shy nor short on confidence, and he has backed up his big words by making over the Mets’ roster. No, they didn’t add Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, so some of this smacks of business as usual.

But they are a better team to start 2019 than they were to start 2018 — better at catcher and second base for sure, likely better at both corners, deeper in the bullpen. They don’t play games in a vacuum, so they will still have to prove themselves on the field, and the first of what promises to be 57 fascinating mini-battles against Washington, Philadelphia and Atlanta commences Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park — deGrom against Max Scherzer, a high-octane matchup to jump-start the season.

And if you, as a fan, aren’t yet completely sold by Van Wagenen’s vision of these Mets, it would seem his players are.

“What he’s been saying is exactly the kind of thing we want to hear,” deGrom said Wednesday, “because we feel exactly the same way. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a part of this team, because I definitely think we are headed in the right direction.”

And don’t underestimate what the inclusion of Alonso on the roster means. For a franchise that has been fairly accused for a decade of squeezing nickels here and pinching dimes there, it would have been easy to keep Alonso in Syracuse for the 2½ weeks necessary to gain an extra year of control.

Van Wagenen: “I’m not of the mindset that we should be sacrificing the best product for the fans and the best product for the other 24 guys in that clubhouse to save service time or potential future money six years down the road. If Pete Alonso is good enough to have six consecutive years without ever having a hiccup or having to go to the minor leagues, that’s a good, high-class problem for the player, it’s a good, high-class problem for the organization and it’s a reward fans will be fortunate to see.”

Maybe the dark clouds will start to circle starting around 1 o’clock Thursday. Maybe the sky and the shoes will fall. Baseball isn’t about the talk, but about the walk, and the 162-game marathon. But if you can’t feel good about a new season, this new season, dawning for the Mets? Then it’ll be hard to ever convince you.