What is so unsettling about this Mets season is not only that it increasingly looks like a lost year, but that the near future appears worse.

If Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing are two steps forward, almost everything else feels like three or five or 10 steps back.

Access the Mets beat like never before

Don’t miss Mike Puma’s text messages from Queens and beyond — he’s giving Sports+ subscribers the inside buzz on the Mets.

Because it has not only been a bad season on the major league field, but it has also been a regression year for what looked like a promising organizational pitching program a year ago and the farm system in general.

Because that lingering homegrown group of Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos through yet more injury and/or poor performance is suggesting more strongly than ever that it is not going to offer even quality depth moving forward.