David Wright has been mostly absent from Citi Field since his 2018 retirement, but he’ll be back next week, first to watch the Mets host the Cubs on Wednesday and then on Thursday as “commissioner” of the annual Battle of the Badges baseball game between members of the NYPD and FDNY. The game, in its second year at Citi Field will start at 7 p.m. and proceeds will benefit NYPD and FDNY designated charities.

The event offered Post Sports+ a chance to catch up with the former Mets captain to talk about what he’s looking for in his still-evolving role with the organization, why being at the Battle of the Badges Game is such a big deal to him and his thoughts on what is now a Mets team in transition.

Why was taking part in the Battle of the Badges game so important to you?

David Wright: I was talking to people with the Mets about what I wanted to do with the organization and they gauged my interest in different things. They mentioned they were having this game at Citi Field again. With my background, my dad [Rohn, a retired police officer in Norfolk, Va.], I absolutely knew this was something I would want to be there for. This is what I envisioned my role to be. This is the main thing [with the team] for me.

Speaking of your role with the Mets, you were at camp in Port St. Lucie and worked with some young players. Do you expect to do more of that in the future?

DW: I love being around the game and the team, but with being on the West Coast with my family, it doesn’t make sense to be very active with the Mets. I love being around [Brett] Baty and [Mark] Vientos and [Ronny] Mauricio and these guys. And it’s not about how to field a ground ball at third base or what type of swing you should take. It’s more what I’ve … gone through [in] the young prospect phase and the expectations and how you manage your time and deal with New York. That’s what I feel I can bring to the table. There’s enough other people telling them baseball stuff.

Since you watch most of the games, what have you thought of the team’s young players, especially now that the team is in transition?

DW: I think it’s an exciting time for those guys. If I was a young player and I saw what just happened and the amount of playing time and opportunities that have become available, I’m licking my chops to prove myself, that I’m a part of this next chapter and that going into this offseason, ownership and the front office can count on me to be part of the solution. A lot of these guys are gonna be able to showcase what they have and the team can see if they can fill a need internally or need to go externally. You want to be part of turning this thing around and being a driver in the right direction.

Kind of like you were in 2004?

DW: I was called up that July. I look back on that opportunity and I’m thankful I grabbed it and took advantage of it. I know you don’t want to be in a position of the team having expectations and not reaching them, but you want to show you can be an everyday player.

What’s your impression of Baty at third?

DW: It seems like he certainly has it. He has the talent. Now it’s just a matter of going out, getting reps and succeeding. I think that’s what’s gonna happen with more at-bats and getting more comfortable in the role.

Speaking of roles, what will you be doing at the charity game Thursday?

DW: I’m kind of the emcee or host. I want to be with the players [from the NYPD and FDNY], shake hands and say, ‘Thank you.’ Coming from the background I do, I have a tremendous appreciation for what those men and women do on a daily basis. That’s how I was raised and how I want my kids to be raised. During the game, I’ll probably spend time in both dugouts, hang out and maybe provide a little insight, although they’re probably better players than me now and definitely in better shape.

Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

For all of the optimism generated during what would turn out to be a disastrous offseason, there were signs of the disappointment to come.

One of the most memorable days of the winter was the introductory press conference for Justin Verlander, who arrived with his supermodel wife, Kate Upton, at Citi Field and talked about the excitement of the season ahead, which, at the time, seemed assured to at least include a playoff appearance.

But both Verlander and GM Billy Eppler gave what amounted to a warning regarding the season ahead.

“The longer I play the game, I’ve realized you can’t take anything for granted,” Verlander said at the time of the team’s lofty expectations. “We had some incredible teams in Houston that weren’t able to get it done. … Hopefully the more you have it happen, you learn from your mistakes.”

Less than eight months later, Verlander was — incredibly — headed back to Houston as part of what Eppler called a “repurposing” of Steve Cohen’s investment in the Mets, but what amounts to an expensive rebuild, as the front office looks to develop a sustainable winner with more homegrown assets.

“We talked about putting the best team we could on the field and let winning drive the decisions we were gonna make,” Eppler said in December “With some of the conversations we had, the future does come up and it comes up a lot. But in the here and now, being able to put a club together we feel really good about was important. That was the prevailing conversation.”

By May 9, they were two games under .500 and eight games out of first.

By the Aug. 1 trade deadline, the future was now.

Verlander ended up starting 16 games as a Met, the same number as Hideo Nomo. And Max Scherzer was gone — in a trade with the Rangers — after 42 starts in Queens, putting up very similar numbers with the team as Marcus Stroman.

Those were not the benchmarks the Mets were hoping for when they signed the pair of future Hall of Famers almost exactly a year apart.

Back in Dec. 2021, when Scherzer became a Met, Cohen said: “I talked about sustained winning and winning championships, and I mean it. I think the Mets today are closer to that than we were then.”

He was wrong about that, as well as this: “It’s a great day for the New York Mets. It’s even a better day for our fans.”

Cohen, probably more than anything else, is a numbers guy, which is why it was clear he had almost no choice but to make his team a seller at the trade deadline.

On Opening Day, according to Fangraphs, the Mets had a 77.1 percent chance of making the playoffs. Only Atlanta and San Diego had a better odds of playing in October.

By the Aug. 1 deadline, the Mets’ playoff chances had plummeted to 5.5 percent, with only the dreadful Nationals, Cardinals, Pirates and Rockies having worse odds.

But given Cohen’s comments in Kansas City on Wednesday, it seems he was leaning toward selling for a while.

“You look at the probabilities, what were we, like 15 percent, and other teams were getting better,” Cohen said. “You have to take the odds down from that and if you’re going to have a 12 percent chance of just getting into the playoffs, those are pretty crummy odds. I wouldn’t want to be betting any money on that and I don’t think anybody else would, either.”

The Mets spent most of July hovering around the 15-percent mark.

The next questions will surround the team’s approach to the off-season to see if those odds improve in 2024.