PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — Fred Wilpon, here attending the Major League Baseball owners meetings, said Thursday he supported the actions of his general manager Sandy Alderson and described himself as “optimistic” about the Mets’ 2015 season.

He cited the team’s abundance of “horses” and the hope that these pitchers would stay healthy.

And, to borrow from Forrest Gump, that’s all he had to say about that.

The Mets’ chairman is reluctant to speak publicly, and we know all too well about his reluctance to spend on player talent. Yet we shouldn’t conflate those qualities — not fully, at least — with a reluctance to trade for Washington’s Ian Desmond.

The Mets, Rays and Nationals recently engaged in discussions on a three-way deal that would have sent Ben Zobrist to Washington, Noah Syndergaard and another piece to Tampa Bay and Desmond to the Mets, as first reported by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

Zobrist has since gone to Oakland, who subsequently dealt middle infielder Yunel Escobar (acquired along with Zobrist from the Rays) to Washington, thereby giving the Nationals impressive infield depth.

So in theory, Washington still could be open to trading Desmond, and the Mets surely are open to acquiring an upgrade at shortstop over their current starter, Wilmer Flores.

From what we know and what we can speculate, blocking out all of the noise that is attached to the Mets by their own doing, it all comes down to this: Are you willing to give up six years of Syndergaard for one year of Desmond?

The Mets aren’t, and I can’t blame them. Neither can others. As one official involved in recent trade discussions with Wilpon’s team opined, on the condition of anonymity, “The Mets don’t seem to be overly aggressive. Not that that is a bad thing.”

Desmond, drafted by the Nationals back when they were still the Expos in 2004, has become one of the game’s best shortstops.

He is durable — he has averaged 150 games played over the prior five seasons — and he is exceptional on both sides of the ball. He is 29 years old. All of this explains why he turned down a reported six-year, $90 million extension from the Nationals before the end of the 2014 regular season.

Snydergaard has yet to throw a pitch in the major leagues. He hit a few speed bumps at Triple-A Las Vegas last year, although his 3.37 strikeouts-to-walks ratio shows that he didn’t veer wildly off course.

So what gives? It’s all about the control. If Syndergaard can be even a middle-of-the-rotation starting pitcher in the major leagues, then his value over six years far surpasses that of what Desmond can provide over one year.

Even if the Mets want to trade Syndergaard, it has to be for more of something — let’s say, six years of Troy Tulowitzki if the Rockies relent on their asking price.

Which doesn’t seem likely, by the way.

When I told Rockies co-owner Charlie Monfort how much Mets fans would like Tulowitzki, Monfort responded, “It’s not happening.”

The Mets theoretically could try to sign Desmond to an extension, either by requesting a negotiation window from the Nationals or by recruiting after a trade.

But unless Desmond, a native of Sarasota, Fla., secretly harbors a desire to play for a team that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2008 — the year before his major league debut — it is hard to see why he would give up free agency when he is so close.

And if the only way the Mets could sign Desmond now is by blowing him out of the water financially? Let’s say an eight-year, $160 million contract on top of the $11 million he has coming in 2015, for argument’s sake? Well, that would negate the value of the window of exclusivity.

They still would be paying him the sort of open-market prices he could command next winter, so if the Mets really are willing to compete in that arena — and again, there’s every reason to doubt that’s the case — they can just wait a year, tread water with Flores and go after Desmond with Syndergaard still on their roster.

“Ian Desmond is our shortstop,” Washington GM Mike Rizzo told Nationals reporters on Thursday. “He’s the leader of our team. He’s one of the best shortstops in all of baseball.”

The Nats are open to trading him because they are worried about managing their payroll over the long term. Whether they would give him to the Mets in a direct trade, especially since the Mets are one of the two teams actually trying to upend Washington in the National League East (as the Phillies and Braves both rebuild), is not clear yet.

Wilpon won’t be saying much more anytime soon, and the safe bet is for the Mets not to do much more in the short term, either. That doesn’t mean they should do the exact opposite of that, though. Trading Syndergaard for Desmond would be close to the opposite.