It is as if Mortimer and Randolph Duke poked their heads into the major league baseball season and decided to have a little fun with everyone in Queens.

Forget the trade deadline coming up on Wednesday. Even forget the deal pulled off on Sunday for Toronto’s Marcus Stroman that could be part of a larger three-way transaction involving Noah Syndergaard.

The Mets had already traded places with … themselves?

“I think we’re starting to put it together, and for the most part we’ve been playing complete baseball,” Michael Conforto, whose second home run in two days ignited a six-run first inning in what became a more-nervous-than-necessary 8-7 victory over the Pirates on Sunday. “We’re taking it one day at a time.

“We can’t change the season overnight. We just have to keep at it on a daily basis and hopefully get on a run.”

The Mets are no longer a stroll through the park. For so long this season so much less than the sum of their parts, they have won four straight and 10 of their last 14 after dropping their first game following the All-Star break. They are six games out of a wild-card spot with five teams to pass in order to reach the promised land — the playoffs — and perhaps equally as important, play their next 10 games against the White Sox, Pirates and Marlins, teams with the 23rd, 24th and 26th “best” records in the majors.

“I feel like we’re synching this up,” said Mickey Callaway, the manager who for the time being is not quite so beleaguered. “We’re scoring runs, the bullpen has been on and the starters have been outstanding. That’s the recipe for wins.

“We have to continue no matter what decisions [relating to the deadline] are made.”

Are these the real Mets, as Ron Santo once mused in a directly contrary context 50 years ago, or is this spasm of competence simply a reflection of the traditional baseball rhythm of a 162-game season? The Pirates, for instance, have lost eight straight games while appearing less than big-league caliber. Yet these guys won seven of eight in late June. Oh, and the 1962 Mets went 9-3 from May 6-20 of the franchise’s inaugural season … and promptly lost 17 straight.

Answering the aforementioned question before the clock strikes 4:00 in New York on Wednesday is Brodie Van Wagenen’s responsibility. The general manager, whose offseason construction of this unit has seemed haphazard, now must decide whether this recent reversal of fortune has staying power, or whether it’s a mirage rather than an oasis on which to pitch his tent.

The rotation has been terrific since the break and had recorded the second-best ERA in the majors at 2.50 before Vargas allowed three runs in 5 ²/₃ innings. The bullpen has been resurrected, also pitching to the second-best ERA in the league at 2.83 before Tyler Bashlor and Edwin Diaz each surrendered a two-run home run in the ninth. Perhaps thanks to replacing Dave Eiland with Phil Regan as pitching coach on June 20, though the effects of that change were delayed. Perhaps it is simply quality finding its own level.

So, do the Mets deal the entirely unpredictable Diaz for futures while perhaps sliding Seth Lugo into the closer’s role, or is the return not pertinent? Will Van Wagenen trade pending free agent Todd Frazier to a contender for futures if the GM believes his own team is a contender? Is the Wilpon ownership now going to skip ahead, even if only to 2020, when a challenge for a playoff spot can’t be entirely ruled out? The last question is likely rhetorical.

“I think every manager wants to keep his team together,” Callaway said an hour or so before the news broke on Stroman. “Brodie understands that I know we can win. He knows that I know. We both feel we can get on a run and get into this thing.”

The Mets have done nothing extraordinary. They are thriving even as Pete Alonso morphs into a latter day Dave Kingman, which is not exactly what you want. Alonso, 0-for-3 in this one while drawing a pair of walks, is 6-for-51 since the break with four home runs and a .118/.273/.353 slash line. Kingman led the NL with 37 homers in 1982 in his second tour with the Mets while compiling a .204/.285/.432 slash line.

So it is not as if the Mets have been propelled by exceptional feats these past couple of weeks. They have been proficient. They have been winning. But is this sustainable? And who, by Wednesday night’s game in Chicago, will be on the roster after the final bell rings?

We’re not exactly talking pork bellies here, either.