Jose Reyes left the Mets this offseason and took his talents to South Beach, signing with a free-spending Miami team he said was poised to win. He returned to Citi Field last night with his Marlins floundering in the NL East cellar — though they did manage a 4-2 win, with Reyes right in the middle of it his sparkplug style.
Reyes — booed by the crowd of 28,968 every time he came to the plate — followed Justin Ruggiano’s infield hit to lead off the fourth inning by beating out one of his own. He took third on Carlos Lee’s RBI single and scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s sac fly.
It marked Reyes’ second trip back to New York since signing a six-year, $100 million deal with Miami this winter. And the boos the Flushing faithful showered him with were even louder in his encore appearance, but Reyes — who ran his hitting streak to a career-best 25 games — didn’t care.
“You know, it is what it is, man. I’m fine with the Miami fans, so I’m good. They can do whatever they want to here,’’ Reyes said. “I play for the Miami Marlins now, so that’s my concern.’’
Reyes and his high-priced, highly touted team had struggled out of the gate, then dealt away Hanley Ramirez and others before last week’s non-waiver trade deadline. It begs the question: Is Reyes the last man standing? And did the shortstop make a giant Marlins mistake?
“Probably in the beginning I tried to do too much. … [Now] I just try to be me, and play my game. When I try to do too much, that’s what can happen,’’ said Reyes. “[I was pressing] probably because me and the team didn’t do too good. But it is what it is. That’s going to happen sometimes.
“Sometimes you’re going to go through some struggles; that’s how baseball is. But I never quit. I’m always working hard with the hitting coach, trying to put my swing together and finally we’re putting it together.’’
Reyes has been red-hot since Miami traded Ramirez and moved him into the third spot in the order. He’s batting .366 during his hitting streak. But Miami — which spent $190 million last winter on Reyes, Heath Bell, and Mark Buehrle — is still just 50-60, three games behind the third-place Mets.
With attendance 25 percent below expectations in Miami and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria reportedly “angry” over their underachieving season, the front office made a bevy of trades, headlined by shipping Ramirez to the Dodgers. But Reyes vows he never even thought about being the next one dealt, and has no second thoughts.
“No, I’m very happy right now. I like Miami, the fans have been supportive of me too, so that’s good to see. No regrets for me…We just want to finish the season strong and see what happens,’’ Reyes said. “I’m not frustrated [by the trades], because my job is to play baseball. The other stuff, I can’t control. They bring me here to play Jose Reyes’ game, and that’s what I’ve been doing.’’
When asked if he felt the front office was still as committed to winning, he responded “When we get to spring training you’ll know. We had a very good team for the first half [but] we weren’t able to put it together. That’s why they traded so many people. But it is what it is; we still have some good pieces.’’
Reyes is clearly the best of the lot. Manager Ozzie Guillen called Reyes a “special” player, one who the Marlins can build around and is “the glue of this ballclub.’’
And Guillen insisted the glue is happy and content, and appeared befuddled at the mere notion Reyes could be upset at having his win-now team broken apart around him.
“Jose’s happy because he’s a good player, Jose’s not happy because we traded players,’’ said Guillen. “If Jose hits .120 or Jose hits .390, he’s got five more years on his contract. Then why should that bother him?”
But Guillen understood if ownership and fans were unhappy with the record, and fell on the proverbial sword, saying “Very bad, very sad, very disappointed and very embarrassed. And I will take all the blame … because I’m the manager, and I have a lot of guts to do it.
“The front office did a tremendous job putting this team together. Too bad things didn’t work out the right way, and all of a sudden people started getting hurt. And we’re where we are not because of injuries; that’s not an excuse for me. We are where we are because we played very bad baseball for three months.’’
brian.lewis@nypost.com