Wednesday night, the Mets gave the mostly-dormant offseason a bit of a jolt when they brought Jay Bruce back to Flushing on a three-year, $39 million contract.

The move came as a genuine surprise to those who had doubts about the Mets’ willingness and/or ability to spend and raised some optimism about the team’s financial state.

And positionally, Bruce does come in handy for 2018 as well, given that Conforto is questionable to start the season and the Mets already sorely lack outfield depth of any kind.

Overall, Bruce is not a perfect fit for the team going forward, and there is definitely an argument to be made that a center fielder like Lorenzo Cain would make far more sense than signing another corner outfielder.

Of course, Bruce alone doesn’t fix all the team’s needs, which means there is still work for GM Sandy Alderson and the rest of the Mets’ front office to do this offseason.