David Stearns not planning to upgrade a pair of seeming Mets needs

Mets run production has been disappointing for much of the season, especially from center field and third base.

With the July 31 trade deadline approaching, both positions would seem in serious need of upgrading. 

But Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday that while he would “engage” with teams, he doesn’t expect to acquire a third baseman and is “comfortable” with the duo of Tyrone Taylor and Jeff McNeil in center. 

Asked specifically during a news conference before the Mets’ 7-5 win over the Angels if he believed the team’s third baseman the rest of the way would come from the group that’s currently on the roster —— which has been primarily Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio, with some Mark Vientos mixed in — Stearns said, “That would be my expectation.” 

And that’s a spot where perhaps the most intriguing position player who could hit the market — Eugenio Suárez — could come from, if the Diamondbacks opt to sell. 

And in center, where the Mets planned on having Jose Siri before a leg injury sidelined him in April, Stearns added that the combination of Taylor’s stellar defense and McNeil’s growing comfort at the position gave him confidence the team could continue down that path. 

“For me, the bar to improve center field has probably risen over the last two weeks,’’ Stearns said of the combination of McNeil and Taylor. “Obviously, in that position, certainly we’re gonna be engaged, but we’ve got to clear a bar that actually makes us better, given the cost.” 

For now, they’ll continue with that kind of platoon in center, but the larger question is at third base, where Baty started Monday against Angels lefty Tyler Anderson — who is atypically hit harder by left-handed hitters. 

Baty entered Monday with just a .647 OPS in his previous 44 games, but in his past 22, his OPS was .852. He remains bad against most lefties.

As for Mauricio, he wasn’t in Monday’s lineup — with Baty at third and Luisangel Acuña at second — and was in a 2-for-19 rut.

The Mets have been waiting for one of those young players to take hold of a spot and it’s yet to happen. 

And Stearns insisted he was OK if the team continued to have to use multiple players at some positions. 

“It would be wonderful if someone would take a step forward and solidify himself as a really good, everyday regular,’’ Stearns said. “But we have 26 roster spots. We want to use them all, and if that means certain positions need to be timeshares, certain positions will be timeshares.” 

If the lineup had hit better with runners in scoring position, their current problems wouldn’t be so glaring. 

“I think a fair critique is we haven’t scored runs,’’ Stearns said of a lineup that entering Monday was 21st in the majors in runs scored since May 1. “We’ve taken pretty good at-bats, get guys on base and we haven’t scored runs. And that goes back to a theme we’ve talked about a lot here and executing with runners in scoring position, which has been a challenge for us all year. I don’t have an answer for that. I wish I did.”