Filled with hope when Brett Butler was signed and after a successful spring training, they now know they cannot have a successful season, only a successful second halfif that. The realization hurts. It is burdensome baggage. Seventy-five games remain in what was to have been a campaign of continued renaissance. Seventy-five opportunities to win or 75 times they must meet the demands of the schedule? The long summer stretches ahead. What will they do with it?

The Mets aren’t sure what to think. Their decline has been so steep, the collapse so comprehensive, they now question their ability to evaluate themselves. How could we have been so wrong? second baseman Jeff Kent said last week. We never imagined anything like this.

Those who can recall their visions of late April and early May are stunned when they compare them to what they have witnessed in the last six weeks. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen all of it, catcher Todd Hundley said Sunday. And I can’t believe it. I thought we were on the verge of getting it turned around. Instead, the Mets have taken many steps in the wrong direction.

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Last summer’s successes seem long gone. Even now, the players insist they would have attained a .500 record if the strike hadn’t interfered. But they never got there then, and now, with the worst record in the National League, are a season-high 19 games from breaking even. They are breaking down in every phase of their game.

The failures of the bullpen, less frequent in the last two weeks, undermined the team, beginning opening night. But with Kent, Butler and Rico Brogna falling short of expectations and with Bobby Bonilla unable to carry the club despite solid numbers, the offense too often has been inadequate. Too many strikeouts, too few extra-base hits, particularly for a team making so little contact, and too little speed.

What Isringhausen, Pulsipher and Saberhagen can do is strike out batters, and that may be the first step toward a reversal for this team. The three constitute a semblence of a strikeout rotation. And the less opponents make contact, the less the Mets must rely on a defense that consistently has been poor.

A year ago, defense unquestionably was the team’s greatest strength. And the addition of Butler, the continued development of Brogna at first and Kent at second, and the shifting of Ryan Thompson to right was to have brought improvement. Instead, the Mets’ error total stands at 67, the second-highest in the National League.

And that total doesn’t begin to indicate how poorly they have played. Double plays not turned aren’t evident in error totals, nor are the half dozen misplays by Butler in center, the poor throwing of understudy catcher Kelly Stinnett and the dozens of ground balls that have reached the outfield because neither Kent nor shortstop Jose Vizcaino has the range demonstrated last summer.

But 75 games must be played in the interim.

In those 75 games, the Mets must right themselves. If we don’t, Green says, this (could) be

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