PORT ST. LUCIE — Ike Davis concealed an oblique injury from Mets officials for most of last season because of bad timing and the fact he was struggling and didn’t want to surrender his spot in the lineup, the beleaguered first baseman told The Post on Sunday.
Ultimately, his season concluded on Aug. 31 in Washington when the oblique “popped,” but Davis’ issues with the muscle began in mid-May and got to the point he was ready to ask for a disabled-list stint.
But around that time, according to Davis, he was on the verge of getting demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas — that transaction occurred on June 10 — and didn’t want team officials to think he was using the oblique as an excuse or inventing an injury.
“I thought about saying, ‘Hey, I would like to take a couple of weeks off, because I’m not feeling great,’ ” Davis said. “But then the timing was bad and it was when I was getting sent down. It would have been a great time, but it looks bad and I just can’t say that.”
Davis was reluctant in admitting to The Post his oblique was an issue for most of last season, beyond the “pop” in Washington, because he doesn’t want to be viewed as an Alibi Ike. Last year he batted only .205 with nine homers and 33 RBIs in 103 games for the Mets.
“It makes me look like a baby,” Davis said. “It looks like I’m whining about how I [stunk]. I was terrible, now it’s over.”
The Post first learned the extent of Davis’ oblique issues through an industry source who has contact with the player.
Neither general manager Sandy Alderson nor manager Terry Collins seemed aware of the situation until asked about it Sunday by The Post.
“I would have to go back and check with [trainer] Ray [Ramirez] and refresh my memory,” Alderson said.
Collins was more direct.
“[Davis] didn’t say anything to me or he wouldn’t have played,” Collins said.
Davis was hitting .161 with five homers and 16 RBIs when he was demoted to Las Vegas. He said the oblique soreness began weeks earlier when he started taking extra batting practice in an attempt to break his early-season slump.
“I probably should have said something earlier, but what are you going to do?” Davis said. “I wanted to play better, I didn’t want to come out. If I was hitting .380, I probably would have been like, ‘Maybe I should let this cool down so I don’t miss [extensive] time,’ but when you’re hitting .200, you can’t take weeks off.”
Davis spent 3 ¹/₂ weeks at Las Vegas and returned to the Mets on July 5 with the oblique still barking. Over his final two months with the Mets, he batted .267 with a .433 on-base percentage, but hit only four homers.
“It wasn’t to the point I couldn’t swing,” Davis said. “It would hurt the first couple of swings pretty bad in practice, but if I just got it loose it was better. But, yeah, it was just bad timing.”
Davis is competing with Lucas Duda for the first-base job this spring and said the oblique has healed. The Mets had Davis on the trade block for most of the winter, but were unhappy with the offers they received and ultimately kept him.
Perhaps a completely healthy Davis still has the potential to revert to the form he showed in the second half of 2012, when he rebounded from a horrible start to finish with 32 homers.
Last season, the Mets waited for Davis’ breakout, but it never arrived. But now they might have new information to consider.
“I had an oblique injury for the whole season, basically,” Davis said.