Don’t overcomplicate things.

Mets ownership talked to a dozen candidates to succeed Sandy Alderson. Eleven recommended a rebuild on some level. One did not.

Who do you think got the GM job?

So even now the Mets, under Brodie Van Wagenen, are not playing a long game. For better or worse, they look in the mirror and don’t see 50-55. They see a contender now and a contender in 2020. That is why Marcus Stroman was obtained for two more prospects. To keep the rotation strong if — as expected — Zack Wheeler is traded before the 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline. And because the better of the two prospects in the Mets’ mind — Simeon Woods Richardson — is 18 and years from helping.

Wheeler was under control only this season. Stroman cannot be a free agent until after the 2020 campaign. The Mets evaluate Stroman as no worse than Wheeler and probably better. That’s why they did this.

And if the Mets trade Edwin Diaz or Noah Syndergaard the return is going to emphasize win-now pieces and financial flexibility that still gives them a puncher’s chance in 2019 and has them lined up to try to contend in 2020.

“This all starts with the GM hire,” an AL executive said. “Most of the candidates wanted to build it the way all the analytical teams are building, which comes with some gut-wrenching decisions [think: trade Jacob deGrom] and some low times. Build the foundation. Make key decisions. Patience. Those guys didn’t get hired. Brodie is taking the top-down approach. The major league team is all that matters and they will be relevant every year. So all decisions are made with the major league team at the forefront.”

At a time when most major league front offices are fiercely protective of prospects and prioritize organizational depth and the future, the Van Wagenen Mets are zagging. The only other executive who basically follows that approach is Dave Dombrowski, who nearly won a World Series with Detroit and did last year with Boston. But those ownerships were willing to tolerate mammoth payrolls, which the Wilpons have not.

“It is a weird approach and not sustainable over years and years to overcome mistakes,” the executive said. “But Brodie is all major leagues, which fits the Wilpon model.”

Even with that approach, the Mets did trade Jason Vargas for some payroll relief and were expected to deal Wheeler. They are listening still on Edwin Diaz and Noah Syndergaard. There was greater doubt that Syndergaard would move, emphasized by that as of Tuesday afternoon he was still scheduled to make his Tuesday night start. The Mets would not risk that if something were close to being done.

“Syndergaard, what they were asking, it is not even worth a second conversation; I’m not even sure it was worth the first,” said an inquiring executive. “Maybe some other team would say yes to that, but that is hard to believe. Because the Mets are not in the mode of meeting you in the middle of your offer and their ask, it is their ask or nothing.”

As for Diaz, the Rays and Red Sox both are pretty certain they cannot meet the Mets’ price. Perhaps the Dodgers or Twins will.

But the Mets seem comfortable that as long as Diaz and Syndergaard pitch better the rest of this season than they have until now, their value will remain at least as high as today even as they accrue service time. Plus that duo is viewed internally as helping the Mets win now and they want to take a shot with a rotation of deGrom, Syndergaard, Stroman and Steven Matz.

The mindset of this organization from the top is to always see the half-full scenarios when it comes to self-assessment because ownership so badly wants contention. So that the Mets’ pitching results and defensive metrics are improved recently is a symbol to the front office that this is the team and that the first-half Mets underachieved.

“Look at the snapshot they are looking at,” said an official from another team. “That small snapshot shows a good team and you can convince yourself that ‘all we have to do is perform like we are supposed to.’ Every year someone goes on a legendary run in August or September. If you are 9, 10 [games] out, that is hard to convince yourself to try. But they are six out [of a wild card through Monday]. They can objectively look and think they have a 17-8 in them [they had won 10 out of 14 going into Tuesday] and pick up three games. If they get to three out by Labor Day, which is totally doable, they can say, ‘Hey, we are not stupid, we are smart, this is the team we told you could win.’ They don’t even have to make the playoffs, just being in it is a home run for them. If you look at the team, not only could they do that, they should do that. That is overriding in their thinking.”

Yep, don’t overcomplicate things — they want to be a contender, so that is what they see and why they are acting at the deadline like an under-.500 team that wants to win now.