Over the past month or so, the Mets have found more than an ace for their rotation and a stud centerfielder for their formerly nonproductive outfield.

They have also found their identity, although you may not like the identity they have found.

With yesterday’s official announcement that they had signed Carlos Beltran, the prize of this winter’s free agent crop, the Mets have now established just who they are. Yesterday, the Mets officially became the Yankees, or at least, a version of what they believe the Yankees success formula to be.

No longer will there be any confusion in Flushing over whether this is a young, developing team or a collection of grizzled veterans. No longer will it be hard to determine if the Mets are rebuilding, reloading, or simply wallowing in their inability to do either. Stow the argument that this is a big market team trying to win with a middle market budget.

The Mets are in the game now, for better or worse. The money game.

“With this signing, we tried to tell our fans what we set out to do,” said Mets GM Omar Minaya at yesterday’s Shea Stadium news conference to officially display Beltran in a Mets jersey and cap. Significantly, the Beltran announcement came three hours before a similar event in the Bronx, where the Yankees showed off their newest acquisition, Randy Johnson.

Point made. With the signing in December of Pedro Martinez, and this week’s signing of Beltran, that portion of Mets history concerned with the development and display of a home-grown baseball team appears to be over.

Now, the strategy is to handle problems the way the Yankees always have, by throwing money at them.

Forget about finding the next Miguel Cabrera or Josh Beckett somewhere on the farm in Norfolk or Binghampton or even Coney Island. The New Mets, or El Nuevo Mets, if you will, are more likely to buy someone else’s fresh produce than to grow any of their own.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the signing of Beltran marks the first time in recent memory that the Mets have been able to land a free agent who was actually sought after somewhere else, although how badly Beltran was sought after and at what price remains open to interpretation.

The Astros, Beltran’s most recent team, reached their ceiling at $105 million for seven years, and refused a demand for a no trade contract. The Cubs, mentioned prominently by Beltran’s agent, Scott Boras, as serious players, were just playing games. And the Yankees, who reportedly could have been the beneficiaries of a rare instance of Boras largesse – the agent is said to have made an 11th-hour call offering the Yankees Beltran’s services at a cut rate of merely $100 million for six years – didn’t even bother to pick up the phone.

So it seems as if the Mets were the only serious suitors Beltran and Boras had, leaving them open to the charge that once again, they have been had. It was only a couple of months ago that their ludicrously generous contract to Kris Benson – three years, $22.5 million – artificially inflated the market for pitchers all over the league, and in fact caused them to have to overpay Martinez by some $10 million.

When the final bill for the 2005 Mets is finally calculated, it is likely that the payroll will top $115 million, giving them that rare distinction, shared only by the Yankees and the world champion Boston Red Sox, of having to make a contribution to the league’s corporate welfare fund, otherwise known as the luxury tax.

Still, Beltran – a career .284 hitter who had a monster post-season last October, with eight home runs in 12 games – is the kind of player no team need apologize for going after. This is no fat Mo Vaughn, coming off a year on the disabled list, or sullen Robbie Alomar, wishing he was playing anywhere but in New York, or Tom Glavine, who was practically driven to the airport for his flight to Shea by the Atlanta Braves after 14 stellar seasons.

Beltran may not be a player the Mets can claim as one of their own, but he certainly is a player they can build around. Perhaps for the first time in the respective histories of the Mets and Yankees, the best centerfielder in New York plays in Flushing, not the Bronx. And with second-year man David Wright hitting before Beltran in the no. 2 hole and Mike Piazza hitting after him, the heart of the Mets’ batting order might finally show a pulse.

They still need a first baseman, of course – Carlos Delgado, anyone? – and at least three reliable arms out of the bullpen. And wouldn’t it be nice if someone would take Cliff Floyd’s sore ankle and attitude off their hands, and by the way, wouldn’t Magglio Ordonez look good out in left field at Shea?

There is still plenty of work to be done, but Minaya, along with his assistant GM, Tony Bernazard, seems to know exactly how he will go about doing it. And it looks like he’ll have the help of new Mets partners Time Warner and Comcast, who seem to have persuaded Fred and Jeff Wilpon that the best way to launch their new television network is by investing in marquee ballplayers.

Minaya was able to work relative wonders in Montreal with no budget at all. Imagine what he might be capable of with the kind of checkbook freedom Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein have enjoyed over the past few years.

“This organization is headed in a nice direction,” a jubilant Beltran said yesterday. “The right direction.”

Namely, some eight miles north and west of Flushing, where it was discovered long ago that just about every baseball ill responded to the same treatment. A cash transfusion.

Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m on 1050 ESPN radio.