Let us stipulate that there is not a soul in professional sports who, if given the choice between getting meager playing time in the majors and a prominent role in the minors, would choose the latter. Are you kidding me?

No one willingly gives up life in the bigs, which not so coincidentally comes with earning service time that determines an athlete’s pension clock and salary arbitration and free agent calendars. No one.

So Dominic Smith’s assertion on Friday that, “I feel like the minor leagues won’t help me get better in the big leagues,” is noteworthy only in its banality. Still, a bit more diplomacy might have better served the 24-year-old, who has stagnated on the Mets bench most of the past few weeks and sure seems on his way back to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Diplomacy is always best for a player weighed down by a .183/.205/.324 slash line that features one RBI and 26 strikeouts against one walk. When those are a player’s numbers, it is probably best not to say cheese — even with a mouthful of it.

The Metsies had themselves a good afternoon Saturday in a 7-4 victory over the Nationals at Citi Field behind the strong work of Zack Wheeler, who simultaneously enhanced his value to his team both as a rotation fixture and as trade bait. Michael Conforto hit his first home run in 51 at-bats since June 26, the managing was more questionable on the visitors’ side for once and the Nationals looked less invested than the Mets in this penultimate game before the All-Star break.

“We’re going to try and be the team we need to be,” Mickey Callaway said after his team improved to 7-6 for the month. “Obviously we have not been that.”

The organization will continue working with Smith to try and get the 2013 first-round draft selection to be the player he needs to be in order to succeed at the major league level. Obviously he has not been that through a pair of fleeting looks last summer and the past five weeks.

Smith had only started eight games and amassed 35 at-bats since June 25 while the Mets religiously trotted out Wilmer Flores at first base. Of course, Smith’s .086/.086/.143 slash line over that stretch probably has played some role in Callaway’s decision to keep him seated while sticking with veterans such as Flores and Jose Bautista, who could be gone by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

Smith needs at-bats. Unless something unforeseen develops, he won’t get nearly enough here. It’s even unclear exactly how he’s going to get them in Vegas, where touted 23-year-old first-baseman Peter Alonso crushed a grand slam on Friday and is beginning to hum following his June promotion from Double-A Binghamton. Smith could go to the outfield, where he played 10 games earlier in the year for the 51’s, but that surely would signal a fork in the road of the young man’s development.

No at-bats, now perhaps no position.

Smith’s words in the paper prompted words from Callaway in a manager-player pregame conversation. Before telling the press that the organization would make a determination on Smith’s status during the break, he told the player to mind his priorities.

“I’m sure he’s frustrated that things aren’t going the way he wanted and his playing time has been sparing since he’s been here, but we just need to get him in the right frame of mind so he can continue to improve,” Callaway said.

“In our little chat, I told him he needs to worry about things in his control. He can’t control where he’ll play.”

Well, he would if he had produced. But it seems as if Smith will be back on the treadmill after a pair of vaguely disappointing big league look-sees.

“It’s part of the game. We’re in the big leagues. You gotta play hard and you gotta play well to play every day,” Smith said. “We’re trying to win ballgames and they’re trying to put the best guys out there.

“You just gotta keep plugging away and keep grinding. If I go back, then I go back and I’m going to go and prove why I should be back up here. I’m going to keep working hard and try to make the most of my opportunities. I’m going to control what I can control. That’s it.”

Once regarded as part of the future of the Mets, Smith must ensure that the parade hasn’t already passed him by.

“Quite frankly, if he feels [he belongs in the majors] and goes down there, go down and hit .400 and hit a bunch of bombs in a very hitter-friendly park,” Callaway said. “That was the gist of our conversation.”