The Cincinnati Reds have again managed this year to be one of the more interesting teams in baseball. A collection of parts that just don’t quite fit together, the Reds entered the All-Star break with a 47-41 record and have gone 16-34 since, undermined by injuries and unbelievably bad pitching.

The way in which they’ve handled this state of affairs provides an instructive contrast to the way the Mets have handled a similar collapse; by admitting their flaws and using the season to see what they have, the Reds are setting themselves up for a good run next year. The Mets, meanwhile, are preparing for more of the same.

A lot went right for the Reds this year, the first and most important being Adam Dunn’s emergence as one of the best power hitters in baseball. Great teams need great players, and in Dunn the Reds have that rare commodity – an affordable franchise-caliber hitter in his early prime. They might have another one in the making in Wily Mo Pena, who’s slugging over .500 as a 22-year-old.

Elsewhere, the Reds got encouraging news. Catcher Jason LaRue, a longtime defensive standout, is having a very good offensive season for a catcher, and at 30 he’s still young enough for the improvement to stick. Third baseman/outfielder Ryan Freel and 2B D’Angelo Jimenez also showed they could be useful, productive players next year.

None of this, of course, involves the Reds’ three best-known players, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Larkin, and Sean Casey. Much went right with all three this year. Griffey, before yet another season-ending injury, was making a comeback with a vintage season. Larkin was an asset, all told, playing as well as a 40-year-old shortstop can be expected to play. And Casey has had a season that in many years would earn him some MVP support.

The reason I don’t mention the play of these three as positives in the same way I mention that of lifetime minor leaguer Ryan Freel is that what they do is, as the Reds have to their credit realized, basically irrelevant except insofar as it enhances their trade value. Casey, a free agent after next season, is a strong candidate to be dealt this off-season. The Reds are also likely to do nearly anything necessary to get Griffey to an American League team.

And what of Larkin, who has played with dignity and grace for the Reds for 20 seasons, who has won an MVP and a World Series with the team, who has forged a Hall of Fame career in the Queen City and is having his best season in years? He’s been benched so the club can use his playing time to evaluate two fringe prospects, and will likely be brought back for 2005 only if he agrees to another cheap contract like that he’s playing under this year.

This pitiless refusal to allow sentimental attachments to players like native Cincinnatians and future Hall of Famers is something the Mets might pay attention to. If Reds manager Dave Miley can bench Barry Larkin for the good of the team despite all he’s meant to the franchise and city for two decades, why exactly were the grizzled likes of Todd Zeile and Wilson Delgado in yesterday’s Mets lineup?

If Reds general manager Dave O’Brien is willing to explore trading a (relatively) young, highly productive, and popular player like Casey, why exactly would the Mets hesitate to trade their old, unproductive former stars?

There aren’t really any reasonable answers. The truth is that the Reds have, in large part because of a bullpen that’s given up about 60 runs more than an average bullpen and injuries not only to Griffey but to outfielder Austin Kearns, had a bad season despite a first half in which they exceeded expectations. But rather than try to pretend that they’re a contender, they have decided to use their valuable playing and instructional time on players who will help the team next year.

I suppose that might be said of the Mets; but if John Franco and Wilson Delgado represent next year (and of course they quite possibly do) the team has fallen farther, faster, than anyone would have dreamed possible.