MIAMI — The Marlins, in their second year of a dramatic organizational overhaul, are the NL East’s punching bag. Step right up and take your best swipe.

As the Mets expect to tussle with the Phillies, Nationals and Braves in the standings, they vow not to overlook the Marlins for any given game, but also realize their best shot at getting fat within the division is probably on a steady diet of cooked fish.

“I think a lot of who wins the division will come down to who really plays well against these guys,” Michael Conforto said Monday at Marlins Park, where the Mets opened a three-game series. “We feel like we should beat these guys, just like we should beat every other team in this division. We feel we have a great team and should go out there every day and have the ability to win the game.”

The Mets went 12-7 last season against an underwhelming Marlins team that had shed Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna, among others, in the previous offseason. The rebuild continued this winter, with All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto traded to the Phillies for prospects.

So the Mets, who bolstered their lineup and bullpen in the offseason — adding Robinson Cano, Wilson Ramos, Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia, among others — might want to raise the bar against Miami this season. A worthy goal of .700-plus baseball against the Marlins would entail the Mets going 14-5 in the season-series.

But as the Yankees discovered in losing two of three games to the dreadful Orioles over the weekend, it’s often easier said than done.

“We have to come out this series and play like they are the Nationals,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “We can’t let up. These are the games, these are the series that mean just as much. You look up at the end of the year and you need to have taken care of business, whether it’s the Nationals or the Marlins. We have to take care of business and play the game the exact same way.”

It’s a Marlins lineup that includes relatively unknown names such as Rosell Herrera, Brian Anderson, Lewis Brinson and Jorge Alfaro. If there is familiarity it’s on the bench, where former Mets Curtis Granderson and Neil Walker were added in the offseason. Starlin Castro and Martin Prado are the veteran names in the starting lineup.

“It’s kind of like we have this very tough division and this team we can’t really look past because any time a team brings up young players they can really surprise you,” Conforto said. “You don’t really have a lot of scouting reports on them, you don’t know what they are capable of, you just can’t take it lightly.”

Callaway said the surprise factor when playing such a young team can’t be discounted.

“We’ve been talking about that and I think that’s a very difficult thing,” Callaway said. “They are swinging early, they are hitting and running, they are doing things that teams normally wouldn’t do and you can’t predict it.”

Callaway compared it to when Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux would struggle in his rehab starts against minor league teams because he didn’t know how to game plan against the hitters.

“We can’t allow teams like this to stick around,” Callaway said. “We have to continually attack and never feel like we’ve got this, because the next thing you know this team is very talented with young players. They will sneak up and bite you.”