It’s looking like it is going to be a long, hot rest of the summer in Queens, especially after the Mets took the first step in moving on from what has been a miserable season.
The trade of David Robertson to Miami for a pair of young minor leaguers on Thursday was likely just the start of at least a modest dismantling of a Mets roster that has woefully underperformed.
Outfielders Mark Canha and Tommy Pham, and lefty Brooks Raley are among the potential next players to go, and higher-profile players, such as Justin Verlander, who is slated to start for the Mets on Sunday against Washington, are also drawing interest.
“We’re trying to stay as competitive [as we can],” manager Buck Showalter said before the Mets faced the Nationals at Citi Field on Friday night. “It’s still there for them. … We’ll try to overcome the games that we’re behind to get where we want to get.”
But Showalter has been around long enough to know how difficult that would be, especially with Robertson now closing games for one of the five teams they would have to pass to reach the wild card.
“I’ve been through these things on both sides of this,’’ Showalter said of the trade deadline. “Nobody cares right now, organizationally, what it means down the road.
“We can still solve this if we play better.’’
That seems unlikely, especially since the Mets haven’t been less than five games under .500 since before the All-Star break.
Complicating matters is the awareness of the players that other moves are almost certain to come and will make the road even tougher.
“I think it’s the unknown that drives players crazy,’’ Showalter said.
Without Robertson, the Mets used Brooks Raley to close out their win Thursday after Kodai Senga allowed just one run over six innings and David Peterson followed with a pair of scoreless innings of relief.
“We’ll have a chance if we keep pitching like we did [Thursday] night,’’ Showalter said. “It’s harder without [Robertson]. We’re gonna stay focused.”
The manager said he checked in with his players, as he does regularly, and called the mood on Friday, “pretty positive.”
“You learn in this game to kind of roll with the punches,’’ Showalter said. “You think you’ve got it figured out and then another punch is thrown your way. It usually lets you up off the turf if you stay true to it and that’s the challenge now.”
Asked how he thought his team would respond, Showalter said: “We’ll see. The proof will be in the pudding.”
But it’s not just the major league roster that’s a concern to the Mets and general manager Billy Eppler right now.
It’s also the shaky state of their organizational depth, which is something team owner Steve Cohen pointed to last month when he said part of the reason the Mets’ payroll was so high was that they hadn’t been able to develop any pitching in the minors, causing them to have to pay Verlander $86 million over two years after Jacob deGrom left for Texas.
The trade of Robertson in exchange for minor league infielder Marco Vargas and catcher Ronald Hernandez provides a boost to their system, with MLB Pipeline ranking Vargas as their sixth-best prospect and Hernandez 17th.
Whether Vargas, 18, or Hernandez, 19, will ever sniff the majors remains to be seen.
“Our farm system’s got a way to go,’’ Eppler said late Thursday night, following the Robertson trade. “We’ve had some drafts that a lot of people feel good with, but we just have to continue to add if we’re gonna go where we need to go in the long-term.
“We’re gonna need an upper-tiered farm system to get there.”
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