Harsh reality sets in for Cohen and Mets

Ever since the Mets had their fire sale, they have gone 6-11 after a 7-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night at Citi Field.

They just came off being outscored 40-10 by the Atlanta Braves in their weekend series at Citi Field, including losing 21-3 in Game 1 of the doubleheader Saturday.

The Amazins stunk since June, and they have never recovered. They will likely finish the season in last place, as they try to get a high draft pick to accelerate their rebuilding process.

After high hopes to start the season, this has been quite a fall for baseball’s expensive team after starting the season with a $360 million payroll.

There will be no playoffs this season, and there certainly won’t be next season, either. The Mets are rebuilding. They didn’t have to say it publicly. Their actions spoke for themselves when they traded David Robertson, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Dominic Leone, Tommy Pham and Mark Canha.

This ends whatever idea Mets owner Steve Cohen had about winning a championship in three to five years. It’s going to be longer than he thought. He also realized it’s not a quick fix to build a championship team.

He probably knew this team was no closer to dethroning the Atlanta Braves, the class of the NL East and baseball, especially after they locked up all their core players such as Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Michael Harris II, Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy to long-term deals.

It may not have been a popular idea to start rebuilding, but it was the right thing to do. It would have been foolish to throw money away to veterans with the idea the Mets had no shot of winning it all anytime soon. With the farm system so barren and the inability of developing players, it was a good idea to start rebuilding with other team’s prospects.

It’s understandable if Mets fans are frustrated about this. They have seen plenty of rebuilds that result in nothing or a lack of sustainable success. They are not getting any younger, and they want to enjoy their team going through a long success like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Braves or Yankees.

Mets fans were promised that Cohen would share no expense in building a great team no matter what. It turned out he had his limit after a disappointing season.

It shouldn’t be surprising. He said all along his goal was to build around young players through the farm system and player development when he purchased the team. He also talked about it’s not a good thing to keep throwing money away to build a team.

With the Mets likely hiring David Stearns to oversee the team as the president of baseball operations, it made sense now to get a head start on rebuilding. Nowadays, teams don’t have to take five or six years to rebuild. Teams can rebuild quickly and win as we have seen with the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles.

If you are hiring a new president of baseball operations, you are rebuilding and starting over.

Mets fans will be reading and hearing about the journey of Ryan Clifford, Luisangel Acuna, Drew Gilbert, Marco Vargas, Mike Vasil, Blade Tidwell, Tyler Stuart and Christian Scott since they could be the products of a better tomorrow. This is what the next few seasons are going to be about.

The present won’t be pretty. There will be more games of what Mets fans saw this weekend against the Braves. The Mets are going to be overmatched against great teams.

It’s on the team to make fans search for some bright spots during this period. Hopefully, they will start calling up their young prospects and they contribute quickly as Francisco Alvarez has with his 21 home runs and 44 RBIs this season. They need to see Brett Baty and Mark Vientos make significant progress next season for them to be the core players that will lead the turnaround.

The Mets are going to have to make some offseason moves to accelerate the rebuilding process. Stearns or whoever is the president of baseball operations will be expected to do so, and that may mean trading Pete Alonso, even if it’s not the popular thing to do.

It’s better to be proactive than reactive with rebuilding. The Mets were proactive to start now before it got late.

By trading for prospects now, it gives the Cliffords, Acunas and Gilberts a chance to start developing and being called up as soon as possible.

It does not make the present look fun or any better right now. There’s a good chance Buck Showalter is likely managing his final 43 games with the team, as he knows the situation.

It’s not something Showalter or any Mets fans envisioned when this season started. It happened, and now the long wait back to prominence begins.

It could get worse before it gets better, and that’s the only way it will get better.

You can read Leslie's Jersey Sporting News columns on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.