PITCH FOR AMED

With Cabrera out for 10 days with sore wrist, now would have been perfect time for Rosario

Amed Rosario was not even a consideration Tuesday. The Mets’ front office has decided that they are not going to bring up top prospects for shortterm assignments. The needs of the big league team don’t dictate the pace of prospects progress. It has been a policy they have stuck to, so Tuesday when Asdrubal Cabrera was placed on the disabled list, they did not think about bringing up their electric shortstop prospect.

And that is a big missed opportunity.

Rosario should have been making his major league debut Tuesday night and this is not just throwing a bone to a fan base clamoring to see him.

This was the perfect time to bring him in with a preset time limit — the 10 days that Cabrera is on the DL — so that he does not feel the pressure of having to play to stay. (And hey, if he hits .400 there is no reason he could not stay a little longer).

With the Mets’ offense going strong right now, Rosario would not have been asked to do too much and Terry Collins could have easily batted him down in the lineup. With the Nationals coming into town on Thursday night, it would give him the cover of a big series, he would not be the main story beyond his first game.

While two scouts who have seen Rosario this season said they would not pronounce him ready for the Mets’ big league team, they both said he’s very, very close to forcing the team’s hand.

“He’s really close,” said a National League scout who saw Rosario last month. “He’s close enough that I am really surprised they didn’t use this as a chance to bring him up. A lot of other teams would have.”

It was the perfect opportunity to give Rosario a chance, much more so than when Cabrera went on the DL earlier this season and the Mets were scuffling.

But Collins said there were no internal conversations about Rosario coming up that he knows of. Instead, the Mets manager slid the struggling Jose Reyes over to his natural position for the next few games.

The Mets have been consistent in their policy in not bringing up a player unless they feel there is a chance that he won’t be able to stay for the rest of the season. Mets GM Sandy Alderson was in Las Vegas last week and, according to a front office source, the consensus among the player development people is that the 21-year-old needs more time in Triple-A before he is ready to come up to the major leagues and stay.

That was reiterated on Tuesday.

“We think this is going to be short-term,” Mets assistant GM John Ricco said. “We want him to come up and stay long-term.”

Fair enough, but bringing Rosario up and sending him back down wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Michael Conforto had to go through it and it did not break him and he might admit that getting demoted last season was a learning experience for him. It certainly motivated him this winter and the Mets have reaped the reward so far this season. Conforto, who was out of the lineup with a stiff back on Tuesday, is hitting .293 with 36 RBI and 14 home runs in 57 games.

But the Mets worried about Conforto coming up and staying when they finally brought him up — under much more pressure-filled circumstances — in July 2015.

So Tuesday, there was never going to be Rosario.

The Mets are convinced that Cabrera’s second stint on the DL with a sprained left thumb will be a 10-day deal. The shortstop aggravated an injury over this weekend that he had earlier this season when he was batting right-handed. It’s gotten so sore that he can no longer hit righthanded. With a stretch where the Mets will face six to seven left-handed starters (and already shorthanded on the bench with them carrying six starters) the Mets felt they had to DL Cabrera so they weren’t shorthanded on the bench.

“Due to the fact we have the 10-day DL, he’s not going to miss many games, except for the lefthanded pitching,” Collins said. “If this rest quiets the thumb down to where he can hit right handed he’s gonna help us.”

The Mets recalled utility infielder T.J. Rivera to take his spot on the roster, which is fine and will help them short term. But the Mets missed a much bigger opportunity Tuesday night for long-term gain.