The Mets needed Carlos Correa.

That is not my sentiment.

That was the belief of the man willing to pay the price, both to sign Correa and to further infuriate his fellow owners by expanding his all-in payroll to around a half a billion dollars.

Losing Correa to the Twins — assuming the once-again-a-shortstop can actually pass a physical this offseason — will not exactly endear Cohen to his brethren. Even without that touch of roster opulence, Cohen’s Mets project to a $357 million-ish payroll, and if you calculate benefits, tax credits and the tax itself will come out around $444 million — or $100 million-plus more than where the second-place Yankees are calculated to land.

But on the subject of second place, that is where the Mets finished in the NL East last year, albeit with 101 wins. And they did not survive the wild-card round against the Padres. The Mets essentially reassembled a version of that squad, which is darn good. But it was not good enough in 2022. At least to the guy writing the massive checks.

Because on the Dec. 21 night he and Scott Boras hammered out a 12-year, $315 million agreement, Cohen told my colleague Jon Heyman, “We needed one more thing, and this [Correa] is it. … This really makes a big difference. I feel like our pitching was in good shape. We needed one more hitter. This puts us over the top.”

Now that hitter is gone, having reached agreement with the Twins on a six-year, $200 million pact that if all the options fully kick in can reach $270 million over 10 seasons.

For the Mets, it is hard to envision finding a player as good as Correa between now and Opening Day. Thus, we can pretty much assume that unless Francisco Alvarez is a smash hit (literally) from the outset (not impossible), the Mets already are in for a hitter between now and the trade deadline of Aug. 1 at 6 p.m.

We know money will not be an impediment — the Wilpons are long gone now. We saw that Cohen was willing to go to $500 million all-in, and on that night three weeks ago, he also told Heyman about raising his bid higher with Correa than he initially desired, “In the end, what the [heck’s] the difference. If you’re trying to make a move, you make the move. If it’s [a few percent] more, what’s the difference?”

This has been the mindset that the Mets had in mainly staying status quo. Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo and Adam Ottavino were re-signed. Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana and David Robertson were enlisted to replace Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Seth Lugo. That essentially feels close to a push. Brooks Raley is an edge over Joely Rodriguez as is Omar Narvaez to James McCann. But that is more marginal. Alvarez as the DH is a wild card.

But Cohen looked at all of this and felt the Mets “needed” one more piece. He saw Correa as a big upgrade over Eduardo Escobar on both sides of the ball, plus Correa (18 homers in 79 postseason games) has demonstrated he could hit the best pitching at the biggest moments. And Cohen is not investing this much not to play in the biggest moments or to see his offense go rather feebly as it did late last season in having Atlanta overtake the Mets for the NL East crown and as it did mostly in being eliminated by the Padres.

Thus, the Mets had to be really worried about the physical and Correa’s lower right leg, which he severely injured in the minors in 2014, but hadn’t resonated as a problem publicly until an offseason in which the Giants (13 years, $350 million) and Mets both backed away from their initial agreements. The Mets were willing to redo Correa’s deal for way less in guaranteed money and years, and way more proof of health to get him to the full 12 seasons of pay.

Correa found a team that would assure him more. So — PENDING PHYSICAL (yep, all capital letters) — Correa is reuniting with the Twins. Meanwhile, the Mets strangely find themselves as a team with a $350 million payroll that still doesn’t have everything.

Five weeks before spring training, the Mets learned they had lost something the most important person in the organization felt they — his word — needed.