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Pencils down, the first portion of the MLB offseason has ended.

It took a lockout to spur the action, but it was a thrilling final few days leading up to it, wasn’t it? Steve Cohen and the Mets had a big hand in that.

Contrary to how the Mets looked a week before the work stoppage, they found themselves sitting much prettier by the time player transactions came to a halt at midnight Wednesday into Thursday, as the collective bargaining agreement expired without a new one agreed to.