This was always a season of discovery for the Mets.
Sure, upper management wanted to sell hope in spring because, well, which organization doesn’t — particularly among those in financial distress?
And halfway through this season, there was a positive record that elated the faithful and did much to downplay that the 2012 Mets do not hit with power, do not have much speed, cannot hit lefty pitching, do not field particularly well and have just about the worst bullpen in the majors.
Then the first month of the second half came along as a cruel slap of reality that made the hope go away, more than negated the positive first half and returned the Mets to where they really always have been: discovery mode. Trying to figure out who from this group finally can make the Mets sustained 162-game contenders and not just first-half posers.
When asked this question, Terry Collins heartily stated, “You have to start with the shortstop.”
The problem is Ruben Tejada also is where Collins ended.
That said something horrible about August 2012 for the Mets, but more disturbingly it was not exactly a rousing endorsement for a better tomorrow. Collins was not going to run down the product. But he also was not going to spin just for spin’s sake. Not when the landscape obviously is filled with so many obstacles between here and consistent, six-month contention.
“There are multiple things that have kept us from playing very good,” Collins conceded.
In other words, this isn’t a simple plug job. Not when you are three outfielders away from having a legitimate major league outfield. Not when you don’t have a starting catcher in a sport already short on catching. Not when significant parts of the Mets’ own hierarchy remain unsold that Ike Davis or Daniel Murphy can be part of a first-division right side of the infield. Not when Jonathon Niese is showing second-half endurance issues once more and Dillon Gee has become a physical uncertainty. Not when Jason Bay and Johan Santana are choking the payroll for one more season.
And not when even your two best players in 2012 — David Wright and R.A. Dickey — are facing their walk years in 2013. Thus, the Mets have to commit significant dollars for a substantial period on both or seriously consider trading them between now and next July 31.
Dickey won his NL-high 15th game yesterday, five-hitting the Marlins, who serve as the latest exhibit that you cannot simply buy your way out of a bunch of shortcomings — if the Mets even had the finances and will available to begin that kind of purchasing spree. That is why they needed this to be a year in which they made more positive internal discoveries than the fact that the heady, skilled Tejada could take the baton from Jose Reyes and handle shortstop for a long time.
Instead, Lucas Duda and Kirk Nieuwenhuis struck out all the way back to Triple-A. Jordany Valdespin showed skill, but also the professional/temperamental shortcomings that have kept the Mets from envisioning him as a long-term piece. Bay somehow went from unproductive to unplayable. Santana could not stay healthy for a full season. No one in the bullpen screamed that they are a long-term building block.
You want to dream about Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler in the rotation, and Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia in the pen, go ahead. They all have big arms, huge upsides. The Mets’ only real chance to build something of prolonged substance — and soon — revolves around that group, notably Harvey and Wheeler.
But there is nothing more fickle in the sport than young pitching, even talented young pitching. For every Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez who honors his pedigree, there are twice as many Jair Jurrjens, Phil Hugheses, Ubaldo Jimenezes and Rick Porcellos who never fulfill the best of their scouting reports.
Harvey makes his home debut tonight, and Collins admitted he is curious, with 100 family and friends in attendance, how the young righty handles the atmosphere. It is part of the continuing discovery phase, which unfortunately for the Mets has mirrored their season: It has gotten worse, not better.
joel.sherman@nypost.com