Slumping Reyes gets mental break

Whenever Terry Collins broached the subject of Jose Reyes, he always —

always — mentioned Reyes’ smile. Hit a homer, go 0-for-4, there was the smile. Win, lose, day, night, home, away, Reyes smiled.

But recently, when Collins discussed Reyes he didn’t talk about the smile. He spoke of frustration. Start a major league season 6-for-63 with 16 strikeouts, you would be frustrated, too.

“Right now,” Collins said Saturday, “you can just, when you’re around him, sense he’s really struggling mentally with what his approach is.”

So Collins gave Reyes the day off against the Nationals. At least that was the intent. With the Mets still shorthanded from injuries, Reyes pinch hit in the sixth inning, walked, scored then stayed in the game. He also flied out in the eighth.

Collins wanted Reyes to clear his head, relax, and maybe gain a sense of starting fresh. Reyes accepted his R&R day as a way to retool. Plus, Collins said so.

“He’s the skipper. Whatever he tells me to do, I am going to do it,” said Reyes, who admits to the frustration but stressed the season is so early, even if the boos have begun.

“I don’t want to say [frustration is] way deep because it’s only [17] games into the season,” Reyes said. “It’s frustrating because I want to do good, man. I want to help this ball club. When I am on base, I can make a lot of stuff happen.”

But so far, stuff generally hasn’t happened. Reyes has two extra-base hits — both doubles — and one stolen base. And he has scored just five runs, despite serving primarily as the leadoff man. That isn’t good stuff.

“I haven’t been able to do that so far. So that’s kind of frustrating for me. The game that I play is getting on base ... making stuff happen, stealing a base, scoring a run. That’s stuff that’s good for your ball club and I feel like I am not able to do that so far,” Reyes said.