MILWAUKEE -- The Mets abandoned the title belt that many MLB teams award to their team MVP nightly. Instead, they decided to be different with a crown, a silk robe and, well, a toy I won't use the technical term for.

But they've been far from the kings of baseball, instead acting more like drama queens.

It's been a week since the Matt Harvey controversy, but really it started well before that. Maybe it started when David Wright was shut down from his throwing program in spring training. It continued when the organization publicly sparred with left-hander Steven Matz over his elbow injury, then when Noah Syndergaard refused an MRI and Harvey didn't make anything any better.

Once it looked like the dust had finally settled, the Mets lost their closer, Jeurys Familia to a blood clot. They can't even get through an off day without news breaking.

"When you get up around here in the morning, you just don't know what you're going to face," manager Terry Collins said.

His players echoed the same sentiment.

"I just wait until I get to the ballpark for someone to tell me what's going on," infielder T.J. Rivera said, only half-jokingly.

It's tough to tell whether or not the events of the last week or two had some bearing on the Mets' four straight losses but it's impossible to not link it all. And while the clubhouse hasn't exactly lost any hope, there's been times where they just didn't know what to do or how to react.

"I just forget it," Rivera said. "Or at least I try to."

While the character of many has been tested and exposed in recent days, the character of several others has shown in the way the Mets have carried themselves through it all.

There's a palpable level of frustration in the Mets' clubhouse, but there's little tension.

"It always sucks seeing one of your teammates get hurt or one having to miss games," outfielder Michael Conforto said. "It's frustrating because these are the guys that you spend your life with six months, or seven or eight months, really. They're your friends and your family. We're not numb to it. We've got to focus on what we can do and focus on our jobs."

The Mets are still doing their jobs, but some are doing them better than the others. There doesn't appear to any resentment or anger towards anyone and the good news is that they're aren't dogging it, despite the fact that the season already feels like it's in the dog days.

"We're competing, and that's the most important thing," second baseman Neil Walker said. "If it felt like we weren't competing, then it would be cause for concern, but I don't get that sense."

The Mets and their league-worst 5.07 ERA will try to forget this week ever happened and hope for a little less drama as they head into Arizona on Monday.

"You've got to rise out of the ashes and get back on the horse," Collins said. "We'll go to Arizona tomorrow and start playing again."

An apt metaphor for a trip to Phoenix and some apt hyperbole given the dramatic characterization of the last two weeks of Mets baseball.

Abbey Mastracco may be reached at amastracco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @abbeymastracco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.