Time will tell who won Walker deal

PITTSBURGH — Neil Walker slept in his own bed Sunday night, just a little north of this charming Midwestern burg, and Monday morning, he finally got to swim in the pool his family built over the winter. His ride to PNC Park? None other than Pirates ace Gerrit Cole. When Walker — a Pittsburgh native and a drafted and developed Pirate — joined his Mets teammates for pregame stretch at his former workplace, the few Pirates employees in the vicinity offered him a hearty ovation. At which point the aforementioned Mets teammates jokingly offered some golf claps of their own.

Yeah, the Mets could enjoy their second baseman’s homecoming, its postponement due to rain notwithstanding, with a smile, knowing full well that they are beating the Pirates in the Dec. 9 trade that sent Jon Niese to Pittsburgh.

If only the equation were that simple for the Mets. But acquiring Walker didn’t result in bidding farewell to just Niese. In one fell swoop, it also clinched the non-return of Daniel Murphy. And it’s Walker-for-Murphy, not Walker-for-Niese, that will remain the swap to monitor.

“He’s been a plus for us,” manager Terry Collins said of Walker. “And in order to get a good player like that, you’ve got to trade a good player. It was a deal that looks like so far, both sides have certainly used it to their advantage.”

Collins might have been overly generous there. While Niese’s 4.36 ERA doesn’t conflict dramatically with his career norm, he has yet to enjoy the “Ray Searage bump” that many veteran Pittsburgh starters of recent vin- tage experienced when they joined the Pirates and worked with Searage, the acclaimed pitching coach here. Throw in those controversial comments the left-hander made during the offseason and spring training, including his assertion that his 2015 season with the Mets permanently turned south after he pitched the night his wife Leah gave birth to his second child, and this transaction has produced zero remorse in Flushing.

That’s because Walker returns home with a superb .279/.348/.505 slash line, well above his career norms, giving some muchneeded production to a generally limp Mets offense.

Walker could be building a second popularity base in New York if not for his predecessor, Murphy, who owns a .384/.416/.626 line — his 1.042 OPS leads the National League — for the rival Nationals.

Once Murphy declined the Mets’ qualifying offer of a one-year, $15.8 million contract last fall, the Mets focused all of their energy on signing free-agent second baseman Ben Zo

brist. And less than 24 hours after Zobrist turned down the Mets for the Cubs, Walker was a Met, with Sandy Alderson and company liking the trade largely because it gave them roster and payroll flexibility. Walker can be a free agent after this season, and Dilson Herrera, 22, remains an intriguing future option, putting up good numbers at Triple-A Las Vegas.

Of course, re-signing Murphy for the eminently reasonable three years and $37.5 million he received from the Nationals would have given the Mets a different sort of roster and payroll flexibility. With David Wright having gone down once again, this time with a herniated disk in his neck, the Mets could have switched Murphy to third base, as they did last year during much of Wright’s extended absence, and recalled Herrera to play second base. Given Wright’s fragile overall state, Murphy could have served as a steady swingman.

At a news conference Monday, Walker said all the right things, praising the Pirates for his time in black and gold and opining of his new team, “We’ve seen how special it is in the locker room.” He said he had arranged for “north of 100” tickets to be lined up over this three-game series, giving family and friends an opportunity to cheer on the now-visiting player.

Maybe Walker will keep helping the Mets all the way to a World Series title, and he’ll sign elsewhere next offseason, and Herrera will take over seamlessly in 2017. That would give the Mets the full win at second base.

For now, though, to fully scrutinize the Mets’ keystone call, you have to keep tabs on Flushing, Pittsburgh, Vegas … and Washington.