Someone who works for the Mets walked up to me at the Subway Series the other day and said, “Money, again? Really? Aren’t we past that by now?”

And here’s the thing: Maybe in a fair world, everyone would be past that by now. In a fair world, Bernard Madoff would be in jail, no longer a threat to anyone, and he would have long ago ceased to be a shadowy figure in Mets history. Maybe in a fair world the upper echelons of the Mets’ front office would be judged solely on the performance on the field (which, this year, would be just as harsh as any ancillary monetary concerns).

But the Mets do not operate in a fair world. They operate in baseball, where there is no salary cap, where big-market teams aren’t supposed to be celebrated for payrolls that fall just a bit outside the top 10 (the Mets began 2017 with the 12th-highest payroll, just a tick ahead of Seattle, which is no one’s definition of a big market). They operate in a system that is supposed to favor New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. And, of course, they operate in the same city as the Yankees, who revel in the part of big-town bullies.

You know who should feel sorry for the Mets for all of this? Nobody. Literally. Nobody. The team wasn’t foisted upon the Wilpon family; the Wilpons carefully grew their stake in the team and then booted Nelson Doubleday. They wanted this. They wanted the Mets, and New York. Fred Wilpon has been a part of all this since 1980. That’s 37 years. He knows exactly the market his team operates in, and what that means.

And yet the men who run the Mets always seem to lose sight of the fact they are viewed — fairly in many cases, but not all — as running the business on the cheap. It always goes back to that. And you can do a lot of bad on-field things as an owner in New York and recover from them (Exhibit A George Steinbrenner, Exhibit B Wellington Mara). But what’s unforgivable, here, is when you run the team as a thrift shop. Woody Johnson has gotten some blowback on that. Various Islanders owners have, and that will get only louder if John Tavares is playing elsewhere in two years.

But the Mets feel the most heat because they occupy the most hearts as the National League half of a baseball-mad city. And look: they have spent more money recently. That’s a matter of record. Had 2017 gone differently, Sandy Alderson insists their August plans would have been as aggressive as they were the last two years, and you have to take the man at his word.

But Alderson was also the man who had the ability to quell the fears of Mets fans who were upset at the perception that the sell-off of talent in August (notably Jay Bruce) was colored strictly to save money. There are lots of ways to sell what the Mets did to a skeptical public because in a vacuum it wasn’t terrible: save money now, spend it later. Except when it came down to actually quelling those fears, Alderson went another way.

He explained how slicing salary now allows him to prove to ownership that it can be done. He said that allows ownership to loosen its purse strings in the winter. He admitted he couldn’t swear that every dollar saved this year will automatically go toward bettering next year.

And all the while insisting, “This was not a salary dump!”

And all the while implying, “This was absolutely a salary dump!”

If nothing else, you would think the Mets are used to being portrayed this way. You would think all the slings and arrows that have been pointed at them and the team’s coffers through the years would have left them understanding the worst of all strategies is to admit you might only spend a dime next year for what cost a quarter this year.

That kind of forthcoming isn’t noble, it’s bad business. Every bit as bad as cutting corners in the first place. The Mets are tired of being crushed for their perceived parsimony? There’s a solution for that.

Stop encouraging it.

Vac’s Whacks

It is hard to conjure an athlete who has had a greater impact as both a player and a citizen, representing two different New York teams no less, as Curtis Granderson. And suddenly the Dodgers just became about 15 percent easier to root for the rest of the way.

His recent hot streak is a nice reminder of just how easy on the eyes Gary Sanchez’s swing is when he’s right. Aaron Judge probably will always hit the ball farther. I’m not sure even he hits it harder than Sanchez.

“On This Date” by Carl Cannon is about as smart and fun a book as I’ve read in a long, long time.

Every time I see Odell Beckham Jr. make one of these absurd one-handed catches in practice I know I’m supposed to shake my head gravely but I can’t help it: in actuality they make me 10 times more eager for the season to hurry up and start.

Whack Back at Vac

John Buonagura: As Yankees fans Mariano Rivera spoiled us.

Vac: True. But at some point the Yankees were able to get over the fact that Joe DiMaggio was no longer playing, either.

Jay Cummings: Time to “plant” Ereck Flowers in another city. Enough already. It’s Eli’s life we’re talking about.

Vac: Flowers is drawing the last thing anyone who plays offensive line for a living ever wants: Attention.

@FloridaNYer: As a lifelong Mets fan, it is pathetic that these clowns, the Wilpons, run this franchise. For all James Dolan’s warts, at least he spends money.

@MikeVacc: Sometimes I have to stare hard at the calendar to remember that 2015 was just two years ago.

Gene Verdino: In the situation this week where Terry Collins pinch-hit Jose Reyes for Dom Smith, Collins has an obligation to the rest of the American League playoff contenders to try to beat the Yankees with the game on the line. Pinch-hitting Reyes for Smith was the right move at that late juncture of the game.

Vac: I’d still prefer to see the kid hit there, but that does add another layer to what has to go through the decision-making process there.