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Jose Reyes looked at the lineup that was supposed to take the field last night and wasn’t sure what to think.
“I’ve been here a long time and I don’t remember anything like this,” Reyes said before last night’s game against the Marlins was rained out. “So many new faces.”
With Ike Davis and David Wright out, the lineup is far different from anything the Mets had expected at the beginning of the season.
There was Daniel Murphy, shifting from second base to first; Justin Turner, moving from second to third; and Ruben Tejada, who eventually could wind up taking Reyes’ spot at short, just recalled from Triple-A Buffalo playing second.
That left Reyes as the only regular infielder playing his proper position.
“The last couple of years, we’ve had a lot of injuries,” Reyes said. “But to have so many so soon is crazy. Everywhere you go, there’s someone you didn’t expect to see.”
That includes Jason Pridie in center, since Angel Pagan continues to rehab in Port St. Lucie.
And the Mets have played reasonably well for the most part and would rather not have this spate of injuries end their season in May.
“I don’t think it changes anything we do,” Jason Bay said. “Our approach has to be the same, and we have to count on the guys who are here to fill in and do the job.”
But even Bay admitted he didn’t remember seeing a lineup quite as filled with unfamiliar names as he had in recent days. Nick Evans and Fernando Martinez also are recent call-ups.
“Some of these guys I’ve only seen for a few days in Florida in spring training,” Bay said. “I’ve been on teams that have dealt with injuries before, but not this kind of revolving door, with players kind of moving all over the place.”
Now Collins, the organization’s minor league field coordinator a year ago, has to find a way to make these pieces work.
“It all comes down to execution,” Collins said. “We saw it [in Monday’s loss]. We didn’t advance runners when we had to. All year, it’s been an issue, driving in runs, especially with two outs, and it came back to bite us a little bit. All we talked about last year in the minor leagues was execution.”
But he also knows it’s not that simple.
“It comes down to thought process,” Collin said. “All you can ask guys to do is play the game right. They can only do what they’re capable of doing.”
Little did he know how many of those minor leaguers would wind up playing in the majors for him this year.
Neither did Bay when he saw guys like Turner, Pridie and Nick Evans in spring training, but he said the team still is confident it can compete — even without players like Davis and Wright for the time being.
“People talk a lot about luck, especially around here, it seems,” Bay said. “And maybe it seems like we have bad luck, but you can’t think about that and you certainly can’t dwell on it. You have to change your luck.”
The most striking change, according to Reyes, will be playing shortstop without Wright to his right, a sight he may have to get used to later this season if one of them is traded.
“David means so much to us, to be out there without him will be different,” Reyes said. “It’s usually me who gets hurt. But the new players have to understand what they can do and keep us playing well until he comes back.”
As long as no one else gets hurt.
dan.martin@nypost.com