#How Mets are coping with this COVID-19 layoff

There isn’t a silver lining.

Luis Rojas was presented the question in multiple forms Saturday, but the Mets manager couldn’t find much good to come from the four-day layoff in which his team was entrenched after MLB postponed the opening series in Washington for safety reasons, with four Nationals players testing positive for COVID-19.

OK, maybe there was one positive: Rojas could watch other MLB games and take notes.

“It is kind of weird,” Rojas said. “I watched a ton of games [Friday] night and highlights, so I think we can take something out of it. You watch, you see some of the things you can detail from some of the things you see down the road as well. You can write them down, take notes. There’s some opportunities even though it’s kind of weird. We are doing our best even though the circumstances are not the desired ones.”

On Saturday, the Mets played a simulated game at Nationals Park after a third straight day of workouts. They will hold another workout Sunday before traveling to Philadelphia for their scheduled opener Monday night.

“It’s a weird feeling,” James McCann said. “It’s like a kid on Christmas morning looking forward to Opening Day and then have it taken away and sitting there and watch other teams play and not getting to play. I think two words would be ‘tough’ and ‘strange.’ ”

Jacob deGrom remains the scheduled starter for the opener, with Marcus Stroman and David Peterson set for the following two games. Taijuan Walker is scheduled to start Thursday’s home opener against the Marlins, and Rojas said he remains undecided if he’ll revert to deGrom for the fifth game, following a day off, or start lefty Joey Lucchesi, perhaps paired with an opener.

DeGrom last faced hitters on March 26 in a spring training B camp. He threw a side session Saturday, according to Rojas, and is anxious to get started.

“Jake is everywhere, let’s just say that,” Rojas said. “He’s throwing off the slope, next thing you know he’s shagging, he’s doing things, he just wants to be active. I think some of the guys, they want to get out of the hotel sometimes and just be here running around, but we also know we’ve got to be limited too and make sure we have a good comeback workout [Sunday].”

The Braves are scheduled to play the Nationals — who will be without several players following the positive tests and quarantines — in a three-game series beginning Monday. But Rojas declined to say if he viewed the situation as a benefit to the Braves, after the Mets lost such an opportunity to play a weakened team.

“The general comment once again can be it was a letdown at the beginning, once you break the news, because you want to play,” Rojas said. “But I think everybody has done a good job shifting gears of what we need to do. We have got to have the ability to do that, 162-game season, all the ups and downs you see in baseball.”

McCann also refused to cry foul.

“It’s easy to sit back and look at that and talk about it’s not fair or whatever you want to say,” McCann said. “But at the same time life is not fair. … It’s 2021, we are in a pandemic, and you deal with the cards you are dealt.”