Don’t consider this a defense of Mickey Callaway. Regard it more as a tip of the hat to time.

And perhaps a nod to logic, as well: If we afford some growing pains to highly touted rookie players, should we do the same to rookie managers, as well? Should we let them get through a whole campaign before rendering full judgment?

Callaway, his inaugural season as a skipper having turned disastrous with the Mets, found himself in the center of a mini-storm Tuesday in the wake of a head-scratching move — that actually worked — on Monday night. The unorthodox decision nevertheless continued the narrative that Callaway is in over his head, even as he produced a pretty compelling explanation.

If you missed it, the Mets trailed the Phillies in the eighth inning, 3-0, and the Phillies’ Odubel Herrera stood on deck to pinch hit for starting pitcher Aaron Nola with one out and no one on base.

Before the Citi Field public-address announcer introduced Herrera, however, which officially would have made him part of the game, Callaway bolted out to the mound and lifted rookie right-hander Jacob Rhame for veteran lefty Jerry Blevins. The Phillies, clearly surprised, called the dangerous Herrera back to the dugout — maintaining his eligibility for a future plate appearance — and sent up weak-hitting switch-hitter Jesmuel Valentin, who struck out looking. The Mets lost, 3-1, and Herrera never appeared in the contest.

“I kind of just looked at it, when they have their best guy on deck, why not do that? And just see what they do,” Callaway said to The Post on Tuesday, before the Mets lost again to the Phillies, 7-3. “Then they have choices. Especially in that situation. If it were a different situation, different score, that kid could have come back to pinch hit and changed the game. But if you were down 3-0, keep it down three, I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s try it.’ ”

This represents either truly innovative thinking on Callaway’s part — he said he used the same tactic earlier this year, though such an instance couldn’t be found — or the best cover-up of a mistake since a 1986 episode of “Cheers,” when Sam successfully talked his way out of sending a note, “Thanks for a wonderful evening, Barbara,” to a woman named Karen.

The benefit of the doubt has dissipated, understandably. When you have a high payroll and high expectations and you start off 36-53, plenty of blame exists for everyone — from the owners to the front office to the manager to the players. Back on Feb. 13, Callaway held his first “State of the Mets” news conference in Port St. Lucie, professed optimism and vowed, “If we do not do things, it’s going to be on me.”

I reminded Callaway of those words, in light of what has happened, and asked him if he felt responsible.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “I think that the injuries, maybe some of the performance, that’s on the leader. I think I’m glad to take a lot of that responsibility, because I do feel that way. I wish we had performed better, and I’m going to continue to work every day to try to get us out of this slump we’re in. So I feel it every night I got home. I feel responsible for it.”

It’s hard for a manager to survive a dumpster fire of a season like this one. Think of the three obvious precedents in Mets history:

1) After the Mets went 72-90 in 1992, manager Jeff Torborg got a reprieve … all the way until his firing in May 1993.

2) The 2002 Mets went 75-86 and dismissed Bobby Valentine.

3) Last year’s Mets went 70-92 and kicked Terry Collins upstairs.

Callaway has a three-year contract, yet the man who recommended that, general manager Sandy Alderson, is on medical leave and likely won’t return. Common sense says Callaway has to stop the bleeding with this group, which has now lost or tied its past 15 series and will be selling off assets shortly, to avoid being one and done.

“I think that’s important,” Callaway said of stabilizing this shipwreck. “It’s important for our fans. It’s important for our current players. … We need to steady things, normalize things so we can make some good decisions this winter on what exactly we need. Because Michael Conforto’s a good player, and if you felt like he was going to perform this way the whole year, you might look to do something in the winter to replace that. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.

“So we need things to normalize so we are sure, going into the offseason, of the things we need to improve upon.”

That goes for Callaway as well, I suggested.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he agreed.

Like a hot prospect, Callaway arrived with hype, thanks to his work in Cleveland with Terry Francona. He has made more than his share of rookie mistakes, everyone agrees. He also has overseen encouraging rises from pitchers Seth Lugo, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler.

We point out the mistakes, thanks to the team’s record. Yet we don’t declare him and the hiring a failure. Not in mid-July. Sample sizes aren’t just a player thing.