How David Stearns views Mets regression and how he’ll deal with it

Just a dozen days before David Stearns addressed the media prior to Tuesday’s game against Atlanta, the Mets had the best record in the sport, were winners of six in a row and held a seemingly comfortable 5 ½-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. 

But the Mets president of baseball operations watched his team falter badly — practically out of nowhere — over a nearly two-week span before they faced Atlanta on Tuesday, sitting 1 ½ games behind Philadelphia. 

Losers of nine of their previous 10, Stearns noted, there’s no one fix that can be applied to get the Mets right again. 

Instead, Stearns pointed to a regression from their rotation, bullpen and the bottom half of the lineup. 

“Our job is to get out of this as quickly and as well as we can,’’ Stearns said. 

He added, “I still think we have a really good team. I think, certainly, we’re much better than we’ve played the last 10 [or] 12 days. But anytime you go through a stretch [like this], it forces you to evaluate the team.” 

Because he also said it’s too early to look much at the trade market, the solutions will have to come from within, with the Mets hoping the return of Frankie Montas to the rotation on Tuesday would help, but there are plenty of other issues they still have to tackle — including another setback for Sean Manaea, whose return from an oblique strain has been slowed again by an elbow injury. 

There’s also the fact that several of their inexperienced position players haven’t contributed consistently, with Francisco Alvarez struggling badly enough that he was sent to Triple-A, as well as Brett Baty and Mark Vientos — neither of whom have met expectations at third base. 

And younger players such as Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña also have failed to take the next step in their careers. 

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The Mets continue to hope that Vientos returns to the form he showed a year ago when he returns from an IL stint caused by a hamstring strain, which could be by the end of the week. 

Jesse Winker was also brought back to add lineup depth and has been out for more than a month with an oblique strain. He is scheduled to begin a rehab stint this weekend. 

“We have some players getting healthy that we think will help,’’ Stearns said. “I also think there are players who have struggled in our lineup over the last month that largely are better offensive players than we’ve seen.” 

But nights like Monday, when the Mets lost to Atlanta and their Nos. 4-8 hitters didn’t reach base, are hard to overcome. 

“It’s tough to rely on three or four, or even five guys to carry the load every single night,’’ Stearns said. “We certainly have the potential and aspiration to be a really good offensive team and we need 1-9 to contribute more nights than not.” 

He wants to see what a healthy — or healthier — roster can do, with a lineup that could include Winker and Vientos and a rotation that may have their two main rotation signings in Montas and Manaea before the deadline. 

“I think that’s a part of it,’’ Stearns said. “How we perform then and how those players adjust back to the big leagues will be part of how the team is viewed at the deadline.” 

In the meantime, he’d also like to put this stretch in the past. 

“I think I’ve been through some semblance of these two weeks in every year of my career with every team — including a lot that were really good teams,’’ Stearns said. “It’s not fun to go through. Nobody in there is having a good time these last two weeks. You wear this. You also have the perspective and the history to understand that most teams, even really talented teams, have tough stretches.”