Mets season may not be close to reaching rock bottom yet

The Mets are just two seasons removed from falling two wins short of the World Series, a little more than a year since they held the best record in baseball, and less than four months since being labeled contenders again.But now the Mets (40-57) are on pace to finish in last place for the first time in 23 years, returning from the All-Star break after posting their worst first-half mark since 1995.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

Steve Cohen is spending roughly a half-billion dollars on a roster that ranks 26th in batting average (.234), 29th in on-base percentage (.303), 27th in slugging percentage (.381), 26th in quality starts (23) and tied for the second-most errors (65).But the Mets may not have hit bottom yet.Coming off a home sweep by the Red Sox, the Mets resume their seasonlong slog Thursday at Philadelphia, beginning what is MLB’s toughest remaining schedule (.539 opponents win percentage) over the final 65 games.Following a three-game set against the Phillies, the Mets will play three consecutive series against first-place teams (at Milwaukee, vs.Dodgers, vs.

Atlanta), as part of 25 straight games against winning teams.The Mets will not face a team that is currently worse than one game under .500 until the final weekend of August.“Continue to fight,” Francisco Lindor said after the final game before the break.

“At the end of the day, that’s the only thing we can do.And we’re going to try to be better.

We’re going to play as hard as we can in the second half, and hopefully we put ourselves in a much better position.Because right now, it’s not where we want to be.“It’s not to the standard that we have here, and definitely not what we expected … We just have not played up to our potential.”Whatever potential the Mets appeared to have in March doesn’t matter anymore, sitting 12 games back of the final wild-card spot and behin...