You can see it on the faces of Mets fans now, as plain as their noses, as obvious as their chins. You can hear it in their words, measured carefully, and in the way they almost politely hedge their bets whenever the subject comes up.

“I hate to complain, but …” they say.

“This was a great run, but …” they say.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but …” they say.

Such is the flip side of experiencing the kind of thrill ride the Mets took their fans on in 2015, one that culminated with the fifth National League pennant in team history, one that fell three games shy of a World Series title, one that will warm them through the chilly months to come …

One that frustrates them now.

Because while the Cubs are stocking their roster with reinforcements, while the game’s best free agents begin the annual dance of musical million-dollar chairs, Mets fans have been forced to spend these first weeks of the Hot Stove content with two solid acquisitions (Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera) after spending some days trying to talk themselves into believing Ben Zobrist had somehow become a cross between Joe Morgan and Ryne Sandberg over the past few months.

This is the kind of conundrum that faces all fans when they’ve come off a satisfying season, particularly one that seemed to fall out of the sky, the way this Mets season did. Fans believe in karma. Fans believe in things like sporting gods. And nobody wants to anger these diamond deities by grousing so soon after the run is over.

Except …

Except this is the truth that survives even the magnificent run of summer and the first few weeks of October: Mets fans may trust their general manager, Sandy Alderson, more than they used to because he rolled red-hot dice starting in the final week of July.

But it still is hard to trust the men who own the team.

They whisper that more than shout it, after spending so many years shouting it at the tops of their lungs, because … well, the gods have good hearing. And look, nobody with a brain advocates spending for the sake of spending. Nobody ever points out, for instance, that the Mets were 100 percent right not to splurge for Michael Bourn a few years ago, for instance. Many point out that they were, in retrospect, 100 percent wrong to lay out for Michael Cuddyer last year.

But Cuddyer has provided the Mets with an opportunity to turn even that ill-fated move into something tangible. When he announced his retirement Friday, he left $12.5 million on the table. And suddenly, when it seemed the Mets were content to head into next season with a slight payroll increase, there is the opportunity to make another move.

A move (don’t tell the gods) they absolutely need to make, whether it’s Yoenis Cespedes (who, even with Cuddyer’s help, still would push the Mets’ payroll to a place they probably don’t want to be) or Denard Span (who would turn Curtis Granderson into the Mets’ big-bopper acquisition, nudging him from leadoff man to the 4 or 5 hole).

Normally, Mets fans would have little compunction clearing their throats and listing their laments and not minding who cares. But, normally, the Mets are coming off an 88-loss slog of a season, so that is little more than simply feeding a perpetually foul mood. It’s easier to be patient when you’re defending NL champs.

And, just as telling, harder to be impatient.

The Mets built an epic amount of goodwill in a record amount of time last summer. It will be fascinating to see if they wind up setting another modern record squandering it all.

Whack Back at Vac

Alan Hirschberg: So the Mets signed with Coke to replace Pepsi as a sponsor. Well, where else could they go, RC?

Vac: Actually, it would’ve been nice symmetry to the Shake Shack if they could’ve opened a Shasta Shack, no?

Rob Leise: The judge who ruled against FanDuel cited his concern for people with gambling problems. I guess he never heard of Lotto.

Vac: Or the daily number, which has now been legal for so long that a fair number of people look at you nutty when you tell them it used to be a huge part of the mob’s illegitimate profit margin.

@76ed76er: If I had to listen to the Boston Celtics announcers every game I would quit basketball.

@MikeVacc: Listening to Tommy Heinsohn do the Celtics-Warriors game Friday night you got a sense of how Leonid Brezhnev might’ve called USA-USSR in ’72.

Glenn Welch: I feel bad for Tom Coughlin, but as much as I hate to admit it, he doesn’t seem to be able to get through to these guys. Not sure who can, but although there’s plenty of blame to go around, I’m afraid we’re going to find someone new trying next year.

Vac: I find myself thinking the Giants could use a new voice … but every time I’ve thought that in the past, they drop a miracle Super Bowl win on us.

Vac’s whacks

Carmelo Anthony may wonder where the whistles are for him late in basketball games. Me, I’m wondering whatever happened to the Carmelo Anthony who used to make all those last-second shots when he was a Denver Nugget.

I’m not sure how Ron Howard’s film version of “In the Heart of the Sea” can be any more thrilling than Nathaniel Philbrick’s brilliant book, but I look forward to giving it a try.

We always talk about the stud young pitcher who doesn’t learn how to pitch until after his 99-mph fastball becomes a 91-mph fastball; Ryan Fitzpatrick seems like he’s the opposite example: the quarterback whose skills finally have caught up to his beautiful football mind.

The Giants have become what used to be the worst of the clichés about the NBA: No need to watch until the final two minutes of the game.