PORT ST. LUCIE — Time may not be on his side, but Trevor May is experimenting with a new pitch.

The Mets reliever arrived at spring training having “dabbled” in the offseason with turning his changeup into a split-changeup, hoping the new version of the pitch can be more effective playing off his fastball (especially) and slider.

The only catch is that he has just three-plus weeks to fine tune it in camp before the regular season begins, thanks to the delay with the lockout, instead of the regular six weeks.

“I’ve been tinkering with my changeup a lot over the last couple years, just because the straight change has kind of gone out of vogue a little bit,” May said Saturday before throwing a bullpen session at Clover Park. “I’ve leaned really heavily on a certain mix of pitches where it doesn’t really slot in very clearly. So it’s not clear when to throw the straight change. So trying to add something with some depth to play off of my fastball and maybe even create a pretty big difference between the [velocity], too.

“There’s been some that I’ve thrown really, really good and the metrics on it can get up towards the elite splitter status. It’s just all about commanding it, though, and it’s one of the hardest pitches to command. So with me, if I can’t command something, I just simply can’t throw it very much in a game. So it’s all about figuring out command. … I wish I had more than three weeks to figure that out, but got to do the best with what you’re given.”

May was one of the Mets’ go-to high-leverage relievers last season in front of closer Edwin Diaz, posting a 3.59 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 62 ²/₃ innings. But the emergence of a split-changeup could make him an even more important weapon out of the bullpen for manager Buck Showalter.

Last season, opposing batters hit .341 with a .636 slugging percentage against May’s changeup, according to Baseball Savant. They had a much harder time touching his fastball (.217 average, .371 slugging percentage) and slider (.164 average, .291 slugging percentage).

May called the new split-changeup he’s working on a “hybrid” of the one starter Carlos Carrasco throws.

“I have a feel for a changeup, I’ve always been very comfortable throwing it,” May said. “It’s the first offspeed pitch I’ve thrown, so it’s a little bit less of a shock how different pressure points go and how hard you’re throwing it. It’s still a changeup at the end of the day, it’s just trying to coax some downward movement as opposed to it carrying like my fastball.”