Jason Bay is hitless in his last 23 at-bats. He does not have a hit in the month of June. He has a .585 OPS, second lowest of any position player on the Mets’ roster — ahead of only Nick Evans, who has 12 at-bats. And nearly every day Bay plays left field, purportedly an offensive position.

Before yesterday’s game, Terry Collins said he planned to be patient with Bay and did not intend to change or limit the outfielder’s role.

The managerial vote of confidence is a good thing, but I hope that behind closed doors Collins, Dave Hudgens and whoever else need be consulted are considering solutions beyond just leaving Bay in the lineup and hoping he comes around. It’s not like Bay was hitting before the current ofer stretch, and it kills the club to carry a massive hole in the middle of the lineup every night.

Problem is, there’s no obvious answer. A vision test? A few days off to rest his body and clear his mind? One of those phantom Ollie Perez injuries and a rehab stint? A Steve Trachsel voluntary jaunt to the Minors?

I’m no hitting coach and I’m not in Bay’s head. But man, at some point something’s got to give. Lucas Duda keeps destroying the ball in Triple-A. Getting Bay straightened out should be the club’s top priority, but if the Mets are serious about winning baseball games, it’s soon going to become impossible for them to maintain that Bay is their best everyday option to play left field and bat in the middle of their lineup.

I hate to sound reactive and impatient, especially over a guy with so much evidence to show he really can crush Major League pitching — hard as that is to believe with how he’s going right now. But it sure seems like whatever the Mets and Bay are doing to fix the problem isn’t working.

Since we’re on the subject of Gary Carter: The folks at the 7 Line and OnTheBlack.com have teamed up to create a t-shirt honoring Carter, the proceeds from which will be donated to the Gary Carter Foundation or the American Cancer Society. You can pick one up here.

Carter is sick now, news that has devastated the Mets’ family and fan base. And the Mets face a disquieting choice now. Even an operation as tone-deaf as this ought to know that it should finally step up and do the right thing, have a day sometime in the next few months, put Carter’s 8 up on the wall next to 37, 14, 41 and 42.

Would it look like they would be reacting to the horrific news of Carter’s brain cancer? Maybe. And you know what? That’s tough. The Mets could’ve done the right thing on their own years ago. Now they need to give their fans an opportunity to thank and salute Carter, whether he is physically up for the task or not. And because the Mets couldn’t identify the right thing to do if it was a neon sign, then shaming them into doing the right thing will have to do.

– Mike Vaccaro, N.Y. Post.

I’ve left this one alone because Carter’s health issues sort of hit close to home for me, though I suppose cancer hits pretty close to home for most people. And I’m not interested in getting into a whole thing about whether Carter’s contributions to the Mets in his five-season tenure with the club merit retiring his number, because retired numbers are a pretty subjective thing on the whole.

But here’s what I’m wondering: Has anyone asked Carter if he wants his number retired?

Carter has inoperable glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He is currently enduring radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which do brutal things to the body to try to slow the spread of the disease.

I don’t know Carter and I certainly can’t speak for the man. And one thing I’ve learned from this job is that baseball players — especially those of Carter’s caliber — are programmed a bit differently than I am.

But… I don’t know. Man. I guess I don’t understand why so many people seem to assume a guy staring at brain cancer wants some relatively meaningless (and inevitably grim) ceremony in his honor when he’s going through what he’s going through.

Is this something people want for Gary Carter or is this something people want for themselves? Is it all about honoring a Mets legend and “making it right”? Or does some part of this great campaign to retire No. 8 have something to do with our own sadness — not just for Carter and his situation but for ourselves and the crushing fragility of everything — and some human need to provide life with a neat climax to help us better process something that’s damn near impossible to process?

Or maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m extrapolating too much. I loved Gary Carter when I was a kid, and if the Mets want to retire his number and he’s up for it too, then great.

Any recent news on Carter’s health has come via updates from his daughter to his family’s private website. Carter released one statement on the matter, after his diagnosis. It said this:

My wife, Sandy, and our children and family thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We ask that you please respect our privacy as we learn more about my medical condition.

So Jose Reyes is awesome. That much we know.

The Mets’ shortstop leads all players not named Jose Bautista in WAR. He is tops in the National League in batting average and triples, seventh in OPS+, second in stolen bases, and he plays a premium defensive position. We are watching a 27-year-old Reyes benefiting from full health, a full Spring Training and an organization, manager and hitting coach that seem committed to handling him correctly. And it is spectacular.

It won’t always be this good, of course. But Mets fans witnessing how good it can be are understandably clamoring for more, begging the club not to trade the homegrown star, demanding the front office pony up the cash necessary to re-sign him to a long-term extension.

That all makes sense: When a big-market team like the Mets gets its hands on a player of Reyes’ caliber, it should build around him, not trade him for prospects or allow him to flee in free agency. It’s impossible to expect any young player returned in a trade or selected with a compensatory draft pick to develop into half the talent that Reyes is, and since Reyes is still only 27 — he turns 28 on Saturday — he likely has several seasons of being awesome ahead of him.

Even if you have already written off the 2012 Mets for whatever reason, you must realize that a well-run team can turn things around in two years. And in two years, Reyes will be 29, turning 30 — hardly an old man, even in baseball terms.

Thing is, great players makes lots of money in free agency. Last year, both Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth took home deals that seemed particularly pricey — Crawford’s for seven years and $142 million, Werth’s for seven and $126 million. Neither is a perfect comp for Reyes since neither entered free agency with Reyes’ recent injury history, but both play corner outfielder positions where their production could be more easily replaced.

It could be that those deals were a couple of outliers, GMs going rogue in a strange offseason. Or the deals could indicate a new trend in free agency. If more teams are locking up young players to team-friendly contracts early in their careers, fewer elite players will hit the open market while they’re still young. Plus those teams will have more money to spend on the free agents that do come around.

Which brings me to the poll I posted here a couple weeks ago, asking readers the maximum deal they’d be willing to offer Reyes. Of 381 responses, 72.4 percent wouldn’t give Reyes more than a six-year, $110 million deal.

Again, Jayson Werth — a 31-year-old corner outfielder — got a seven-year, $126 million deal last year. And at the time just about everyone agreed it was a huge overpay, and that Nats GM Mike Rizzo probably had to offer Werth that much to get him to agree to join a franchise like the Nationals. But it only takes one Mike Rizzo, right?

I’m not sure I have any strong conclusion except to say that if you’re shouting, “pay the man,” you might want to specify how much. Because though the Mets should always be able to spend money, being a huge-market team with this here TV network and all, they should always spend money wisely. And though my emotional side wants Reyes back at any cost, I recognize that if the Mets are going to be working with finite resources — i.e. continue not being the Yankees — there has to be a limit to the amount they’re willing to give any player.

One more thought: It seems like teams spending on the free-agent market must do so knowing that they’re almost certainly going to get burned on the last couple of years of a contract. I wonder if GMs approach it that way: Think as if you’re paying the guy the whole sum of the contract for the first few years while he’s still playing at an elite level, and just hope he remains productive enough on the back end of his contract to cull some additional value out of those final seasons. But then I guess it doesn’t really matter much, you just hope for as much total production as possible over the length of the deal.

In conclusion, Jose Reyes is sweet. Pay the man.