AS’ CLOWNS!

Irate Asdrubal demands trade after move to 2B Bumbling Mets finally admit season is Amazin’ flop Asdrubal Cabrera wants out after Mets tell him to switch from shortstop to second base on day brass decides team will be sellers at trade deadline.

SAN FRANCISCO — Asdrubal Cabrera knew this was coming. Jose Reyes knows it is going to happen eventually too. The veteran shortstops both saw Amed Rosario this spring and knew that the Mets’ long-term plans at that position are built around their top prospect. But that didn’t mean it would be a smooth transition, and Friday it began with a bang. Upset with the fact the team would not pick up his option for 2018 and that they had switched him to second base, Cabrera made a point to tell reporters Friday that he had asked to be traded. “They have that plan, they should have told me before I come over here. I mean I just talked to my agent about it,” the 31-year old Cabrera said. “If they don’t have any plans for me I think it’s time to make a move. That’s what I need to do for me and my family. “But I am going to be there tonight and do the best for my team.” What is best for the Mets is to have Cabrera not

playing shortstop and to start thinking about the future with Rosario.

He has a minus-9 defensive runs saved average this season and he’s been underwhelming at the plate. He is hitting .244 with 20 RBI and six home runs.

Even he knows that his time playing shortstop is limited.

“I think next year, I have to go move to another position. I am fine with that. I not getting mad because they move me to any position, I am going to try and do my best,” Cabrera said. “We have to more communication, a couple days ago, they should have told me. And team option. You want me to move, you gotta do something you know.”

The Mets made the right call not picking up Cabrera’s option — their future is built around Rosario.

But they should have given Cabrera a chance to play at second in his minor league rehab assignment and brought up Rosario when he went on the disabled list June 13 with a thumb sprain.

That was when the Mets were actually still playing decent baseball and the top prospect wasn’t mired in his

first hitting slump of the season.

But now, they have an uncomfortable situation in which they are stuck with an unhappy veteran, more veterans unsure about their future with the trade deadline over a month away and the eventual arrival of Rosario hanging over two players.

Sandy Alderson, who confirmed that the Mets declined to exercise the option on Cabrera’s contract when they discussed moving him to third base earlier this season, admitted they are stuck in a wait-and-see spot.

“We’re at the stage where, look, these guys are smart, they know where we are, they know what’s just happened over the last 10 days, they know where we stand vis-à-vis the rest of the division and the wild card race, so, again it would be surprising if that kind of thinking weren’t already in their minds,” the Mets GM said. “On the other hand I think it’s important for everybody to understand there is nothing happening.

“People can talk about trades or demanding a trade or talking about trades, the bottom line is right now there is little to no market for any player because there are too many teams that haven’t decide whether they are buyers or sellers and quite often very few if any deals get done this early in the summer.” It’s a mess. Friday night, the Mets went into their series opener against the Giants 10 games below .500 after being swept by the Dodgers. They were 12 games behind the Nationals in the division and 14.5 games out of the second wild card spot.

A miracle isn’t likely with a rotation diminished by injuries to Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler or with Cabrera F playing shortstop. or now, the Mets are talking about putting Reyes there. A slight upgrade defensively, Reyes is also on a majorleague minimum contract and was brought in with the understanding he would eventually be a bench player. That will make him easier to bench when the Mets deem Rosario ready to make his major league debut.

But until then, the Mets are stuck in this awkward situation of just waiting for the future that should be now.

AP Asdrubal Cabrera admits he sees writing on the wall, which says Mets’ top prospect Amed Rosario (r.) is the team’s shortstop of the future and that the future is not so far away, so veteran tells team he would prefer to be traded rather than switch to either second (where he played Friday) or third base.