MLB

Finding quality outfielder should be next on Mets checklist

CHICAGO — Yesterday was neither Harvey Day nor Wheeler’s World, which made for a pretty buzz-free Mets clubhouse here at U.S. Cellular Field. Sorry, but Shaun Marcum’s first victory of the season, 3-0 over the White Sox, ain’t gonna light up what’s left of the Mets’ fan base.

Which generates the question: Besides the possible debut of catcher Travis d’Arnaud, how are the Mets going to keep themselves and the rest of us entertained every three of five days for the duration of the season?

If your answer is, “A big trade for an outfielder,” well, that won’t be an easy trick to execute.

“It’s one thing to look for somebody to help us this year,” Mets vice president and assistant general manager John Ricco said yesterday, before the Mets closed their quick series with the White Sox. To find someone to help for the long term, Ricco continued, “It’s a much smaller universe of players. … I think it might be tougher to do a deal like that.”

The names that came to mind, when the Mets first floated the idea of a midseason, high-impact trade, were Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez, the Dodgers’ Andre Ethier and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton.

Well, the Rockies — who will play host to the Mets today in a makeup game at Coors Field — find themselves surprisingly in contention for the National League West title, though their 5-3 loss to the Red Sox yesterday dropped them under .500 to 39-40.

Ethier can be had, thanks to the surge of Dodgers rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig. Nevertheless, he’s experiencing the worst year of his career, was openly ripped by Dodgers manager Don Mattingly and has another $80 million or so owed to him through 2017. The Dodgers surely would have to pay a nice chunk of that freight in any trade, and when it comes to the Mets let’s not ignore the reality that public relations will impact this sort of trade. Is Ethier, 31, really going to excite anyone with his arrival?

Forget about Stanton for now. Every indication is that the Marlins won’t trade their prized slugger during the regular season.

It would, Ricco conceded, “have to be a perfect set of circumstances. That being said, it can also be a younger player who we control where we give up a younger player. If we feel like it’s a piece, there’s no reason you have to wait to do that.”

Lesser outfield options such as Minnesota’s Josh Willingham and Colorado’s Michael Cuddyer, both signed through next year, could be considered, obviously with lower asking prices. The Mets should be aiming higher, though. With 1) Matt Harvey about to earn his first All-Star Game invitation, Zack Wheeler up in the big leagues and Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero both named to the Futures Game roster and 2) the immense contracts of Jason Bay and Johan Santana largely set to expire, the Mets profess to have long-awaited flexibility in both money and trade chips.

“If [a high-profile trade offer] came up this year, would we talk about [the top minor-league pitchers]? That’s a good question,” Ricco said. “Knowing what we have now, we could go either way on it. You could basically say, ‘Hey, we’re going to see this through with pitching and just go all in that way and just try to address the hitters through free agency or lower-level trades,’ or we could say, ‘Hey, we’ve got enough, we think — with the pitching we have now — we have enough to move one of the other guys.’

“I’m not sure we have an answer on that yet. We may not have an answer on that until we see whether we have a deal like that on the table and we get together and really talk about it.”

Outfielders Shin-Soo Choo, Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson and Hunter Pence should be among the top-flight outfielders on the free-agent market this winter.

This Mets season has featured a healthy share of disappointment, most notably Ike Davis’ demotion to the minor leagues and Jon Niese’s left rotator cuff injury as well as the terrible record. There might be more disappointment if you were hoping for a big bang on the trade front.

There’s more optimism of late; the Mets are 6-4 on this road trip. The best way to keep that going, assuming none of the top-flight outfielders become available in a trade, would be to spend big on Choo, therefore retaining the pitchers, upgrading the lineup considerably and demonstrating improved financial health.