The Mets have pitching. Lots of pitching. An NL executive was praising it recently and saying it has to help them.

There was a “but” coming, however:

“But this might be the worst time in history to be out in the trade market with pitching,” the executive said. “No free-agent starters have signed [except A.J. Burnett]. You have the potential to trade for Cole Hamels or Ian Kennedy or a bunch of other really good starters, maybe even Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmermann.

“And every organization now thinks it has pitching. Maybe not as much as the Mets, but more than in the past. No one can find bats. I just think the teams with bats are king right now.”

For example, the Mets have been lined up with the Cubs often as trade partners because New York has tons of young pitching and Chicago a bevy of young bats. But, the executive reasoned, the Cubs also have money. They can, for example, buy Jon Lester or Max Scherzer now and a year from now, when they are better positioned to win, delve into next offseason’s potential trove of Zimmermann, Cueto, etc. And never touch the prospect bats if they do not want. Or just keep hoarding them for trades.

This does not mean the Mets can’t make a trade. Only that the historical advantages associated with having as much pitching depth as the Mets possess do not currently apply.

Nevertheless, the Mets intend to trade a pitcher between now and spring training. Sandy Alderson said it without exactly saying it.

The Mets general manager recently explained that the organization would judiciously monitor Matt Harvey’s innings next year as he returns from Tommy John surgery. The plan, as expressed by Alderson, is to let Harvey pitch all season but to find ways to limit his innings so that he is still fresh should the Mets make the playoffs. However, Alderson said this would not be done by using six starters because it would hurt the rhythms of the other starters too much.

In his own way, Alderson was guaranteeing a trade. Because the Mets have six starters who would expect to be in the rotation next year — Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon. In theory, with full health for all six, the Mets could make Gee a long reliever. But a team that still is limiting payroll does not want to have a long man who is due about $5 million as an arbitration-eligible player.

So, the Mets are positioned to deal one of the six, with the belief that Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard and perhaps fast-rising Steve Matz will provide depth at Triple-A.

Mets officials acknowledged this was the correct read when I quizzed them about it. They also said that, short of a blockbuster, they could not turn down that Harvey, Wheeler, deGrom and Syndergaard were going nowhere. For now, those are the building blocks the Mets hope differentiate them and propel them to serial contention.

However, Mets officials also conceded Gee, Niese and Colon are not alluring enough pieces to return the quality shortstop the team craves. Again, the market is flooded with pitchers of all ilks, so in simple supply-and-demand, the supply is abundant, so the Mets cannot expect a big return for No. 3-5-type starters who come with varying levels of injury concern.

Also, until the Mets brass proves otherwise, other clubs will believe the Mets have to move further salary before adding more. Thus, there is some imperative to deal Gee, Colon (due $11 million in 2015) or Niese (who has four years at $36.5 million left if both of his option years are activated).

Thus, Mets officials concede that the best use of one of these backup starters will be to find lefty relief, a strong righty reserve bat, general depth for the organization or some combination of these.

What follows are strictly made up by me as an example of what they could do with teams that are known to be looking to deepen their rotations.

So, for example, Gee will roughly earn in 2015 what the Indians would pay the versatile righty bats of Mike Aviles or Ryan Raburn plus lefty reliever Marc Rzepczynski.

The Dodgers need to thin their pricey set-up herd, so could the Mets deal Colon for lefty J.P. Howell plus Justin Turner’s righty bat? Turner left the Mets and, remarkably, had an

.897 OPS with the Dodgers in 2014 in 322 plate appearances.

Or how about using a starter to try to get a better back-up catcher than Anthony Recker, one who also would be a real starting catcher if Travis d’Arnaud’s injury problems persist or he slumps again? Perhaps with Russell Martin now in Toronto, the Blue Jays would put Dioner Navarro and fine lefty reliever Brett Cecil in the same package for a veteran starter. It is not as if Colon’s age should scare the Blue Jays, who already employ Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey.