As a New York Mets fan, I’m enjoying the final days of the Jose Reyes era in the Big Apple. Because sometime—sometime very soon—it’s going to end in very anticlimactic fashion.

Earlier this week, Reyes told the Mets that he would not negotiate with the team until after the Major League Baseball season ends after they tried to start up contract talks with his agent. “It’s not about the money,” he told a group of reporters afterwards. “It’s about me being comfortable. I don’t want a distraction on my mind. I just want to play baseball. Nothing changed. I want to stay here, be a New York Met my whole career. But right now, I just want to play baseball.”

There are couple of things to point out in that statement. First, the idea that “Nothing changed,” as Reyes put it. In reality, everything has changed for Reyes and the Mets in the last year. Their owner Fred Wilpon found himself in financial ruins after getting involved in the Bernie Madoff scandal. The team was forced to pay a huge deferred contract to former Met Bobby Bonilla. Wilpon made some less-than-flattering statements to the New Yorker about Reyes as well as fellow Mets players Carlos Beltran and David Wright—and, well, the Mets have gone from having at least a chance to make the playoffs to once again being the laughingstock of the NL East despite their inflated payroll (even the Washington Nationals have a future that’s looking pretty bright right now!).

Secondly, Reyes is trying to play the “It’s not about the money” card, which, as we all know, is a lie. In baseball—as in life—it’s always about the money. We don’t doubt for a second that Reyes loves the game of baseball and enjoys playing in New York City, but if another team reaches out to him in the offseason and offers him a contract larger than whatever the Mets are willing to pay to him, he’s not going to turn it down. And after hearing Wilpon’s comments about how he’s not going to pay Reyes the money he’s probably looking for, it is going to come down to who decides to pony up the cash and show Reyes the money. The only way for him to find that out is to wait until after the season ends.

Thirdly, Reyes points out that he doesn’t want a distraction to be on his mind for the rest of the season. Which is fine with us until you consider that by not agreeing to negotiate a new contract right now YOU ARE WELCOMING THE VERY DISTRACTION THAT YOU CLAIM YOU DON’T WANT. Don’t you realize that Mets beat writers are going to be all over you for the rest of the season now asking about your contract? Don’t you think that Mets fans are going to be weary about cheering too hard for you now knowing that you very well might be walking after the season? Don’t you see how distracting all of this contract talk is going to become?

For these three reasons, I stand before you today and say: I hope the Mets trade Jose Reyes as soon as possible. I don’t say that lightly, either. As an avid fan of the team, Reyes is one of the only reasons I’ll even think about going to a Mets game this year if they continue to blow games and stay under .500. At the very least, Reyes gives me a reason to sit a watch a ballgame. He plays hard. He’s an exciting player. And even when they’re losing, he manages to do one thing every game that makes me sit up and care about the outcome of a contest.

But if I basically already know that he’s planning to entertain other offers after the season—and I know that the Mets aren’t going to give him the massive contract he wants—I’d rather see the team get some prospects and start rebuilding now rather than sit through another terrible season and get nothing in return if Reyes leaves in the offseason.

I also don’t see the Mets turning things around much this season. They’re below .500 now and have a brutal schedule staring them down with trips to Texas to play the Rangers, Detroit to play the Tigers, Los Angeles to play the Dodgers, and San Francisco to play the Giants—not to mention a home series against the Yankees sandwiched in between those four journeys—staring them down right now. Before it gets too out of hand and Reyes is put at-risk to suffer one of those season-ending injuries that he’s been known to suffer for much longer, let’s give him what he wants—a one-way ticket out of New York.

It won’t be easy for Mets fans to accept. Not right away, at least. But rather than let Reyes stick around for the rest of the season and then let him walk at the end of it—or, worse yet, be forced to overpay the guy during the offseason just to avoid pissing off overzealous Mets fans—let’s close our eyes, clench our teeth, and rip the Band-Aid off. Let’s stop pretending like Reyes wants to be a Met forever and let’s get this over with before it hurts the team any further.

For now, I’m enjoying the Jose Reyes era. But I know—and, to a degree, hope—that it’s going to end soon. So if that’s what it’s going to be, let’s just get it over with ASAP.

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