Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman

MLB

With 90-win dream dead, will Mets ever snap this spiral?

Sometime this week — next at the latest — the Mets are going to lose their 73rd game and fall woefully short of Sandy Alderson’s call for 90 wins.

The Mets general manager has insisted, since his call became public, it was not a mandate, but rather a way to challenge an organization to think bigger, strive for excellence, believe in a grander way.

However, even using Alderson’s definition, this is a challenge failed. The Mets won’t get to 90 wins and we know that with a month to go — thus, another meaningless September. Even 81 wins again seems unattainable, so a sixth straight losing season already is pretty much a given, also with a month to go.

Forget the 90s, the Mets are as trapped in the 70s as KC and the Sunshine Band. They are on pace for their sixth straight year winning between 70-79 games. The only other time that was done was by the 1970-75 Expos. That was in their second to seventh years of existence.

Their successor, the Washington Nationals, have 75 wins. Will the Mets even win as many games as the Nationals had on Aug. 26?

That a question like that even can be asked shows how discouraging this season has been, yet again, for this franchise, which — unlike those early Expos — has no expansion excuses to explain its 70-something addiction.

Lucas Duda has been a Mets success story.EPA

The Mets spent some money in the offseason — maybe not as much as their fans wanted — but they did buy Curtis Granderson, Bartolo Colon and Chris Young. They didn’t do the kind of sell-off at the trading deadline — think: Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez — that helped the organization alibi falling into the 70s in recent years.

They got a breakout from Lucas Duda, an emergence from a late-game bullpen troika of Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia and Vic Black, an unanticipated gift from Jacob deGrom, a revival from Travis d’Arnaud and — relative to the rest of the sport — good health (they rank 20th of the 30 teams in DL days lost). Yet it all adds up to the 70s again.

We can talk about failed offense and the loss of Matt Harvey and the early missteps with the pen. But there is more going on here, and Alderson and his front office must figure out if this is managing, culture, the wrong mix of players or some combination.

Because in arguably the easiest season in history to be a playoff contender, the Mets aren’t now, and you really had to stretch your imagination to have believed it at any time this year.

They have pretty much had the run differential of a .500 team, but have played miserably below that. The Yankees’ minus-30 run differential is worse than the Mets’ minus-6, yet the Yankees are in the race. You want to say that is about money, well, the Cardinals are minus-10 and are 11 games over .500 compared to the Mets’ eight under. The Yanks and Cardinals have winning cultures, demand greatness of themselves.

David Wright has been up to MVP levels.Getty Images

Still don’t like the comparisons, well, how about the Marlins? They lost their ace, Jose Fernandez, as sure as the Mets lost Harvey. They have fewer resources, play amid more apathy. They even have a poorer run differential (minus-22). Yet they have held at about .500 and the periphery of the wild-card race all season. Maybe it is as simple as their star, Giancarlo Stanton, may win the MVP while the Mets’ supposed star, David Wright, has fallen and might never get up.

But I think that is too simplistic. And you know who else I believe feels similarly? Alderson. He is a smart guy. I sense he saw an organization that talks winning, but doesn’t know how to do it. That doesn’t set high enough standards, that doesn’t have a significant enough accountability gene. I believe that’s what prompted his call for 90 victories.

Winning is a mindset. So is losing. And the Mets, frankly, are too content with it, not demanding enough of each other to play to their skill level, much less over it. In game situations — when winning and losing are determined — the Mets fail far too frequently, retreat to a place that is not horrible, but certainly not good enough, and is where they have the most familiarity and comfort:

Living in the 70s.