David Stearns know his Mets confidence has an expiration date

By the end of this week, the Mets will have played more than half their schedule and they still carry the worst record in the NL East.But if you’ve been waiting for them to blow up the roster and start over, you’re going to have to wait a while longer.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

Still, while Francisco Lindor’s impending return from the calf strain that’s sidelined him since April figures to help an ailing offense, it won’t do anything for what’s been a hugely disappointing rotation or get other injured high-profile players back on the field.But David Stearns said that with the Aug.3 trade deadline nearly six weeks away, Lindor and the rest of the cellar-dwelling team will get a chance to show that what they’ve done over the first nearly three months of the season isn’t who they really are.“We have a period of time here before we have to make a finite decision about the trade deadline,” the team’s president of baseball operations said Tuesday at Citi Field.

“We’re also in a period of time where we’ve got to start playing better baseball.”That’s putting it mildly.Despite their awful record (34-44 after Tuesday’s series opening loss to the Cubs in Queens), Stearns said, “We’re going to continue to give this team time to prove that we can get back in this in a very legitimate sense.”Stearns, speaking at his usual homestand availability — which he has kept up even as the season is crumbling around him — noted that it’s impossible to blame their poor play on any one part of the team.At different times in the press conference, he pointed to the starting rotation’s inability to stay healthy or pitch deep into games, the lineup’s failure to produce runs and the organization so far not being able to get many of their players to play to their potential.Asked about the disappointing rotation, Stearns said, “We clearl...