The Miami Marlins are in for the weekend, and with them comes Jose Reyes. Now that the season is dwindling down to a precious few games, I ask: Would the Mets season been significantly different had they re-signed Reyes?

I don’t see how that is possible after last night.

With the way the Mets are heading, by the time they are competitive again Reyes will be on the downside of his career. The Mets had to have made that self-examination in their thought process. How could they not have?

On paper, the Marlins opened the season a better team than the Mets, with or without adding Reyes.

The teams have six games remaining to determine last place, which no looks like a foregone conclusion.

Reyes will finish with a superior career than Ruben Tejada, but the latter is a better fit for the Mets, and it is based on economics. The Mets couldn’t afford to give Reyes the deal the Marlins did and then expect to re-sign David Wright. Re-signing R.A. Dickey wasn’t even an issue then.

As it is, the Mets will be hard pressed to bring them back despite receiving a favorable court ruling in the Madoff scandal. The Mets won’t have to pay nearly the penalty they could have and get three years before they have to start paying anything. Outside of a clean verdict – which never would have happened – the Wilpons couldn’t have asked for a better deal.

It is true the Mets only intimated, but made no offer for their former All-Star shortstop. Most of us figured he was gone, and we knew it for sure based on how he left his final game. To many, it was an unforgivable trespass, a flagrant act of disrespect to those who cheered him.

But, this was about money for both sides and neither handled the inevitable split cleanly. Based on his recent injury history – including two stints on the disabled list last summer – the Mets weren’t going to sink six or seven years on a speed player with leg and pulled muscle issues.

They couldn’t do this knowing there was little chance they’d be competitive any time soon.

Meanwhile, Tejada has faded, but gave the Mets more than they could have expected offensively. Defensively, they knew they were getting a superior glove, but he has hovered around .300 most of the season.

Whether or not the Mets bring back Wright isn’t the issue. They simply are in rebuild mold and Reyes was lucky to get out of town when he did.