GM somehow lowers fans’ expectations

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — This was a bad weekend for Mets fans. First, the Yankees reminded everyone they were the Yankees by landing Giancarlo Stanton.

And then, if there were any doubt that the Mets are still the Mets, Sandy Alderson corroborated that at the outset of the Winter Meetings by giving a lay of the land that was the verbal equivalent of weak tea.

In summation, he indicated the Mets will not be aggressive in the relief or second-base markets and wait for the prices to drop, though those are their two main areas of need. He said the plan is not to get a first baseman who takes Dom Smith out of the competition — so think Adam Lind, not Carlos Santana or even Logan Morrison. He described finding a starter as the fourth need on a three-need list.

Alderson also explained, “our farm system right now is not brimming with prospects.”

And, oh year, he mentioned the Mets never dabbled in the Stanton sweepstakes, notably because of the costs.

So put it all together and the Mets will not be spending lots of money this offseason, but even worse, they do not have a farm system that will help as a feeder to the majors or in trades.

What is clear now is the Mets are mainly back in the game of hoping their rotation saves them, with the belief that by hiring a pitching coach as manager (Mickey Callaway) and a new pitching coach (Dave Eiland), plus doing a better job in the offseason of monitoring and training their pitchers (how were they not doing this before?), they will optimize the quality arms.

So, in some ways the best news for the Mets right now is Stanton is a Yankee. Sure, he is in New York, but at least he is out of the NL East, which might improve the Mets rotation as much as Callaway.

What would really help the Mets rotation — since they are not getting another starter — is to upgrade the bullpen, which was supposed to be the top priority this offseason. But they have gotten sticker shock. They want to believe that Mike Minor’s three-year, $28 million deal will be the top of the market for non-established closers (though Minor might actually start for Texas).

“To the extent that the markets get overheated, I don’t think we’ll jump into that inferno,” Alderson said.

That is why Alderson was spinning Sunday, suddenly noting that having Jerry Blevins, Jeurys Familia and AJ Ramos now is better than where the Mets were a year ago when they had just Addison Reed for the end game, knew Familia was going to miss time with a suspension and had yet to re-sign Blevins.

The translation here is the Mets might now wait until either prices fall (if they fall?) or go for even a lower target than Reed or Callaway favorite Bryan Shaw, whom they made an offer to a month ago with no real movement since.

In fact, even in this area, the Mets are hoping their intensified focus on pitching nets results internally. For example, Hansel Robles had the 20th-best spin rate in the majors on fastballs for those who threw at least 500 of them. The Mets wonder if Callaway and Eiland can teach him how to deploy that more often at the top of the zone.

But fans were assuming a real upgrade from outside, not wish-casting on Hansel Robles.

The same goes for second base. But again Alderson talked about the lack of teams looking for second basemen — perhaps only the Angels have it as a major priority. That means there is supply and limited demand, so why jump out on it? Dee Gordon came off the board last week, traded to Seattle to play center field, but Starlin Castro is now available after being flipped to the Marlins from the Yankees.

That was in the Stanton trade. The Mets were not part of that. Right now, they are not part of much that would excite their fan base. joel.sherman@nypost.com