What is Rosario’s role, now and in the future?

NEW YORK -- The Mets are giving more playing time to the shortstop of their future.

Amed Rosario sat on the bench for the second straight day against the Phillies — which allowed rookie Andres Gimenez to receive consecutive starts at shortstop because the Mets are playing the “hot hand.”

Manager Luis Rojas, when asked directly, would not commit to Rosario being the team’s primary shortstop with just three weeks to go in the baseball calendar.

“I mean right now, in the stretch that we are, we’re going to say that Gimenez is getting back to back games because he’s looked really good against right-handed pitchers,” Rojas said. “Rosie has looked good in his last game, but right now we’re basically spending some time using Gimenez as the hot hand.

“Rosie’s approach right now seems that he’s climbing, but I always stood behind saying that Rosie is our primary shortstop, but that’s what we’re doing right now. Just basically giving both a chance.”

That’s where the Mets are right now, with two-thirds of their season behind them and only 20 games remaining to make up for lost time and stretches of inconsistent baseball. This is a team that wants time to pause, so they can keep trying to put it all together and continue chasing postseason contention. But if the season ended on Saturday, while the Mets were in the middle of their biggest series of the year, they wouldn’t qualify for October baseball for the fourth straight year and 48th time in franchise history.

As Rojas likes to say: “We’re not there yet.”

The Mets entered Saturday just two games out of a playoff spot, thanks to Major League Baseball’s 16-team expanded format this season. The Wilpons have directed GM Brodie Van Wagenen to get creative and try hard in hopes of one last hoorah before hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen swoops in and reinvents the Amazin’s.

“We’ve talked amongst ourselves quite a bit, saying we’re not ready to go home,” Michael Conforto said of the team’s sense of urgency. “We feel like we just started. We’re going to do everything we can to keep this thing going.”