As followers of this column — if any such readers exist — will know by now, I really have some deep-seated sports withdrawal issues at this time of the year.We are now entering the February doldrums, that dreaded time after this weekend’s Super Bowl when the NBA, NHL and college basketball are all mired in the midst of regular season marathons, pro and college football are on hiatus and there’s still quite some time before pitchers and catchers even report to spring training.

So imagine my delight when today, on the threshold of the February sports wasteland, a legitimately significant baseball deal went down. Even more impressive, it involved probably the best starting pitcher in the game today and had nothing to do with the Yankees or Red Sox.

No, Johan Santana, the most prized starter in baseball, is headed to New York after all, but to the National League instead. The Mets have reportedly acquired the dominant southpaw for a package of four youngsters, of whom only outfielder Carlos Gomez has seen any significant time in the major leagues — amassing a .232 average with 12 stolen bases in 125 at bats.

Make no mistake, the deal is a huge victory for the Mets. To be sure, it dries up much of what was left in their already depleted farm system, but giving up four “maybes” for one bona fide superstar is a no-brainer, especially when none of the maybes are widely considered to be truly great prospects. And when you’ve already found the best shortstop-third base combo in baseball — shortstop Jose Reyes and third baseman David Wright — you can probably afford to sell the farm for a true ace.

Now, the deal hinges, according to ESPN, on the Mets and Santana coming to an agreement on a contract extension. But come on — it’s New York. They’ve got the cash and they wouldn’t have bothered to build a deal like this unless they were willing to spend it. Realistically, all signs point to Santana in blue and orange next season, at the front end of a Met rotation that has been the team’s greatest weakness in the past.

So,what does it all mean? Well, if you feared the AL would dominate the World Series for the next decade or so, you should be somewhat comforted by this move. Before, the only thing in favor of a National League team winning a series against one of the big dogs of the AL — the Red Sox and Yankees spring immediately to mind, but Detroit and Cleveland can’t be too far behind — was a short, best of seven match-up in which anyone could get hot enough to win four games. Essentially, a small October sample size might make, say, Yorvit Torrealba of the Rockies look like a god at the plate while a Manny Ramirez, Deek Jeter or Grady Sizemore could, conceivably, slump over the same span.

But you would never actually think that the NL could boast the kind of team that might actually be better than the American League juggernauts. Sure, there were some teams, like the Rockies and Mets, fielding lineups that could keep up offensively with the Yanks or Sox. And there were other NL squads that had plenty of pitching, like San Diego. Until now, though, no National League team was the complete package.

But the Mets, laughable just five years ago, have risen to that pedestal and should now be counted as the heavy favorites in the National League. Not that folks in Boston or the Bronx should be particularly worried, but at least the old AL-NL debate just took another step towards being debatable once again.

And one last positive — at least this column had absolutely nothing to do with Tom Brady.