No use risking a wild-card choice

THERE are wild cards, and then there are wild cards. There is learning on the job, and then there is learning on the job.

If you think Buck Showalter should become the Mets’ next manager, you’ll receive no argument here. The 65-year-old has forgotten more about baseball than plenty others who filled out a big-league lineup card ever knew. He has endured more second-guessing and scrutiny than the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, who like Buck served four terms at a high-pressure gig.

Yet if you look at the list of candidates that the Mets have compiled, you’ll see that most of them carry some serious credentials. That none of them ranks as an out-of-the-box entry who could crash and burn due to an utter lack of experience.

Multiple sources confirmed that the Mets’ interview list includes Brad Ausmus, Joe Espada, Don Kelly, Matt Quatraro and

Showalter to speak to them about their coveted job opening, and the Mets’ regional sports network SNY reported that the interview process be- gan on Monday.

On that list, the names besides Showalter that intrigue me the most are

Espada and Quatraro. Espada, as a coach for the

Yankees and Astros (and Marlins), has witnessed enough baseball chaos — think Alex Rodriguez’s 2015 rise from the ashes and his 2016 retirement, the 2017 rise of the Baby Bombers, the 2019 Brandon Taubman incident and a certain 2020 declaration by Rob

Manfred concerning illegal sign-stealing by the ’17 Astros — to qualify as an honorary Mets fan. The Puerto Rico native has made it very far down the road in the managerial searches of well-run clubs like the Giants and Cubs. He deserves serious consideration even for a win-now club like these Mets.

Quatraro, a native of the Albany area, spent the four prior seasons on the Rays’ coaching staff, the last three as Kevin Cash’s bench coach. Which means he rode a front-row seat when Cash made one of the more memorable October pitching changes in recent memory, the lifting of Blake Snell in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. Nope, it didn’t make much sense and didn’t work out, and you can say the same for Showalter’s decision to keep Zack Britton in the bullpen as the 2016 American League wild-card game extended into extra innings. The good ones account for their mistakes and learn from them, and Quatraro’s employers adore him.

If Kelly lacks similar street cred, having coached alongside Espada with the 2019 Astros and then 2020 and 2021 with the rebuilding Pirates, he holds a stellar reputation in the industry. Ausmus ranks as a trickier one. His 2014 Tigers were swept in