A Mets contingent led by club owner Steve Cohen was due in Orange County, Calif., late this week — the exact day remained secret — to make their in-person appeal to their top priority, superstar hitter Juan Soto.

Though the Mets surely would be viewed in past years as an abject long shot to win the Soto Sweepstakes — it’s big enough to be upgraded to sweepstakes from derby — insiders are giving them an honest-to-goodness chance now.

No one knows for sure, not even Soto, at least until the California confabs are complete, but the Mets hold some advantages in this great intracity (and beyond) competition.

While Soto was thought to mostly enjoy his season in pinstripes and the Yankees are perennially MLB’s highest-revenue team, no one’s viewing this as the Yankees and everyone else. That’s thanks to Cohen’s Mets plus a motivated and large field.

“It seems like [it’ll be] the Mets — they’re an ascending team and have money,” guesses one rival exec.

We’re only in the middle innings of the mega-competition, but here’s why the Mets have a real shot: