This season, T.J. Rivera has shown his dazzling but short stint in the majors last year was no fluke.

In 64 games on the campaign, Rivera is batting a cool .303/.348/.469 with five homers and 25 RBI. This puts his career slash line at .314/.347/.466 through 97 games — that’s no small sample size.

Rivera has also proven to be incredibly versatile in the field, playing first, second and even some outfield in addition to third base. When he’s been in the majors, he has shown no indication that he does not belong there.

The advanced metrics on Rivera are even better. He has 111 OPS+ this season and a lifetime OPS+ of 114 which is higher than Jay Bruce‘s career mark. He has a 0.7 fWAR through just 64 games this season, has put up 29 wRC this year and has a lifetime .343 BABIP.

These are all good signs, and the BABIP (although in a much smaller sample size) indicates that Rivera’s stats are not attributable to just a few “lucky breaks.”

Rivera’s production aside, the Mets should also consider informally dubbing him third baseman of the future, at least for now, because they frankly don’t have much else there.

The only other viable in-house option, unless David Wright gets healthy, is Wilmer Flores.

Flores’ advanced stats this season (o.1 bWAR, 97 OPS+) are nowhere near what Rivera’s are. Unless the Mets go outside the organization and get a Mike Moustakas or a Todd Frazier, it’s looking like Rivera will be the Mets’ third baseman come Opening Day next year — unless he’s traded.

A report came out yesterday that the Red Sox could be interested in Rivera this trade deadline. He’s obviously not untouchable (unlike Jacob deGrom), but it’s fair to say that the Mets should be a little hesitant to trade Rivera.

He’s been solid over almost 100 big-league games and fairly consistent, and he’s under team control for the foreseeable future. It could make sense for the Mets to sell high on him, which wouldn’t be the worst move if they could get someone who can make an impact next year.

If the Mets don’t get a deal that they love, they shouldn’t bite. Rivera is showing himself to be a capable big-leaguer day in and day out, and the Mets should treat the rest of this season as an audition for the “Third Baseman of the Immediate Future” title.

Even if he doesn’t overwhelm, he’ll probably be the third baseman of next season. You could do a whole lot worse at third than a lifetime .314 hitter.