Five questions facing the Mets as their second half begins

With the Mets resuming their season Friday, the start of a three-game set with the NL West-leading Dodgers, here are five questions for their second half.

1. How will they approach the trade deadline?

There are four primary options: buy, sell, stand pat and buy-sell (trading veteran rentals but acquiring major-league pieces under team control for at least next season).

Buying seems unlikely. At his news conference last month, owner Steve Cohen said it “would be pretty silly” to supplement the roster prior to the deadline if the Mets remain in about the same position. At the time, they were 8 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. Now, they’re seven back. The Mets have about two weeks to prove to Cohen and the front office that they deserve help in their attempt to make the playoffs.

Selling, then, seems more likely. The obvious candidates to get dealt are veterans in the last year of their contract: David Robertson, Tommy Pham, Mark Canha, Carlos Carrasco, Brooks Raley (team option for 2024), Daniel Vogelbach (arbitration-eligible for 2024). And Adam Ottavino has a player option for next season. All could be useful pieces for contending teams; all have experienced varying degrees of success lately.

Standing pat sounds feasible if the Mets remain on the periphery of the playoff picture. If general manager Billy Eppler and company figure the team is, say, two hot weeks away from being in the thick of things, they can hang on to everybody, forego whatever mild farm system infusion they could have had and allow this iteration of the Mets to decide its own fate with its play on the field.

The buy-sell hybrid scenario is one the Mets employed in, for example, 2019, when they weren’t really contenders but made the surprise addition of Marcus Stroman. That would not prevent them from trading any of their would-be rentals. The key in this case: The Mets still really, really don’t want to trade prospects, so don’t expect any blockbusters.

2. What will player development in the majors look like?

Eppler says it all the time: A player’s development never really ends, even when he has graduated from the minors and prospecthood.

Let’s say the Mets indeed are sellers and ship off a lot of the obvious names mentioned above. Evaluating what they have for 2024 and beyond would instantly become one of their top objectives for the remainder of 2023.

That would mean forward-looking personnel decisions taking priority, even if just to see what happens. Play Brett Baty against every lefthander. Bring Mark Vientos back to the majors and give him a real everyday gig. Allow Ronny Mauricio to get his first taste of The Show. See if David Peterson and/or Tylor Megill can refind their previous form or take steps forward. Find out if Grant Hartwig can keep it up — maybe even in high-leverage spots — and if any of the other inexperienced in-house relievers, such as Josh Walker or Stephen Ridings, can emerge alongside him as legit bullpen options for next year.

Heck, some of that sounds more fun than sticking with underperforming veterans.

3. Can their veterans bounce back?

A huge reason the Mets have disappointed: established players failing to play to their career norms. Start with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer at the top of the rotation. Include Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte in what should be the top half of the lineup. Mix in the injured-not-ineffective Jose Quintana, whose absence has mattered.

All of those players figure into the team’s 2024 plans. Them showing signs of being their regular selves would lend optimism to the idea of a quick return to contention.

An aside on another hurt player: What is Edwin Diaz’s deal? The Mets have been mum on the state of his rehab. Last he said publicly, early in the season, he was hoping for a return this season from March knee surgery. If the Mets have little to play for, there probably isn’t any reason to rush him back. But maybe — if he is truly totally healthy, and only then — getting back on a major-league mound would be valuable for his peace of mind heading into the offseason.

4. Will they broach the subject of a contract extension with Pete Alonso?

Alonso, the face of the franchise and one of the preeminent sluggers in baseball, is not due to reach free agency until after the 2024 season. There is no timeliness pressure to get a deal done. But amid a disappointing season — plus the fan resentment and organizational uncertainty that comes with it — locking up Alonso on a big-money, long-term deal would offer a degree of stability and excitement. He would be another definitive core piece to go with Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez.

As always with these things, it takes two. Alonso and Eppler consistently have declined to comment on their interest in or the existence of such negotiations, so it’s hard to say where potential previous conversations have gone or which side is interested in what.

5. When will they hire a president of baseball operations?

Cohen went out of his way to say last month that he still wants to hire a president of baseball operations, which he tried to do in the fall of 2020 and the fall of 2021, only to fail to lure the quality of candidate he desired.

The biggest name linked to the Mets during those processes, and again in recent months, is David Stearns, who turned the small-payroll Brewers into a perennially interesting team (advancing as far as the NLCS just once) during his seven seasons running their baseball department. Since he has been under contract with Milwaukee, Cohen has not been allowed to talk to — never mind hire — him.

Stearns is scheduled to become a free agent after this season, however. Contracts for front-office personnel typically run through October. But when a team realizes there is no future with an employee — as is the case with Stearns, who stepped down into an advisory role after last season — they sometimes set that person free to talk to other clubs before the season ends. It is a professional courtesy for all involved, since lots of teams begin their offseason planning in September, if not earlier.

So don’t be surprised if the Mets’ POBO process gets moving before the end of the regular season. If Cohen wants to make that major hire during this cycle, doing it by the end of the regular season or immediately thereafter would allow that person to “hit the ground running,” as Cohen said last month is his hope, on what looks to be another awfully eventful offseason.

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.