LACK MARKET

Mets’ deadline haul may suffer

THIS season has often felt like a practical joke to the Mets, a pie in the face to their best-laid plans.

They, for example, saw a strong road to contention through seven starting pitchers they believed in, and every one of them not named Jacob de Grom will have missed extended time with injury.

So once that derailed the initial plan, the Mets pivoted to becoming sellers at the trade deadline, and think about how the market has shifted against them maximizing their available pieces (more pie in the face):

Addison Reed is their most attractive item. However, after an extended run of excellence, his last two outings have not been pretty — and at this time of year, short samples matter more than ever. But also look at how many teams already have jumped on relievers: the Yankees (Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson), the Nationals (Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson), the Royals (Ryan Buchter, Brandon Maurer), the Mariners (David Phelps) and the Brewers (Anthony Swarzak).

Also, the market remains flooded with righty relief options: Miami’s AJ Ramos, Atlanta’s Jim Johnson, Toronto’s Joe Smith, Baltimore’s Brad Brach and Darren O’Day, St. Louis’ Trevor Rosenthal and the Angels’ Bud Norris, plus the desired lefty trio of Baltimore’s Zach Britton, Detroit’s Justin Wilson and San Diego’s Brad Hand.

Many of those, such as Ramos, Brach, Rosenthal, O’Day and all the lefties, are controllable through at least next year. Reed is a free agent in a few months. All of it lowers his value.

After Reed, the Mets believe the two pieces they will move by Monday are Asdrubal Cabrera and Lucas Duda. But even there, they are unfortunate based on how little this market is craving bats.

Think how lucky the Yankees, for example, were last year when the moons aligned that they a) had two great relievers (Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller); b) the Cubs and Indians were not only comfortably in front in their divisions, but were motivated buyers because they hadn’t won titles in decades, had deep farm systems and ranked that duo as giving them their respective best chance to win it all; and c) the value of top relievers was never higher in the marketplace.

Conversely, in this environment, no contender is prioritizing a bat as a differencemaking element. That is why there is so little buzz, for example, about Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson. Those two should get through waivers, giving the Mets the last/best chance to deal them in August. Neil Walker would fall into this category, as well.

So what are the Mets to do? Well, try to get the best they can for Reed, Duda and Cabrera, but if it is just for window dressing, then hold onto them and take whatever lowpercentage chance the team has of being a wild card. Reed and Duda are free agents, so the Mets really would like to get something for them. But because Cabrera has an $8.5 million option, the Mets can envision, if they do not get anything alluring in a trade offer, picking up the option and having Cabrera around as a security blanket at third, short (if Amed Rosario is not ready) and second. Actually, even if the Mets move those three players, they are hoping that their best on-field play will come following a sell-off.

They plan to promote Rosario soon after July 31 — in fact, owner Jeff Wilpon was scheduled to watch the Triple-A team Wednesday in Nashville. Perhaps Rosario could have the energizing/production impact (particularly on defense) that Gary Sanchez did for the Yankees last year post-sell-off. Dominic Smith also will be summoned at some point to try to show he should be Duda’s first-base successor. Perhaps Chris Flexen, who makes his major league debut Thursday, and Rafael Montero can be this year’s Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo.

If Reed is gone, Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas probably would hold closer responsibilities until Jeurys Familia returns (if things stay on schedule) in the third week of August, followed a week or so later by Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard.

The Mets began Wednesday seven behind the Rockies in the loss column for the second wild card. Can they mount a charge to meet the minimum requirements of Fred Wilpon — play meaningful games in September? The chances are not great of that or of getting appetizing returns for their available players. But once Plan A went haywire, this is all the 2017 Mets have left to try to accomplish.