He is tempting. Oh boy, is Jenrry Mejia tempting. It is not just that he is talented. But he is talented and he can be pigeon-holed to fill an obvious Mets’ need in the eighth inning.
Not only that, he is homegrown and electric, a combination that makes him a human conversation changer, just at a moment when the Mets so desperately want to change the conversation from last year to this year; just when the job security of the manager and general manager is so tenuous that their long-term plans stretch to April.
Mejia is the best aspect of spring training, that wonderful medley of imagination, hope, skill and novelty that annually obliterates reality, common sense, experience and perspective. This is not a Mets thing. The Braves are experiencing something similar with Jason Heyward, the Nationals with Stephen Strasburg, the Orioles with Brian Matusz and, well, pretty much in every camp a gifted man-child is giving fans, media and sage baseball men March madness, setting them up to look like April fools.
KEVIN KERNAN: MEJIA HAS GOODS TO RESCUE METS
As one veteran scout recently told me, “In a few weeks what we have seen here [in spring] will not matter much.”
Translation: The regular-season lights will go on, the speed and pressure of games will heighten, and scouting reports will expose even mysterious wunderkinds. Some talented youngsters will survive. But not nearly as many as are currently taking breath away.
Perhaps Mejia really is another Doc Gooden, capable of defying a normal apprenticeship. But are 15 or so spring innings — as enchanting as they may be — really enough to make the Mets jettison development plans for a pitcher whose next Triple-A pitch would be his first. Is there a good reason — beyond desperation — why Mejia should not go to the minors to validate that this spring is no illusion and to work further on secondary pitches and command.
It has become routine to say the Mets must start strong, but it is not as if all will be nirvana if they are pre-Memorial Day champs, but are again Labor Day flameouts, circa 2007-08.
They are more likely to regret rushing Mejia than to blow the season in the first 60 games due to eighth-inning shortcomings.
The current smorgasbord is not overly appetizing: Kiko Calero, Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Ryota Igarashi, Fernando Nieve, Bobby Parnell and Hisanori Takahashi. But at this time last year, nobody imagined Calero would be among the majors’ best relievers, which he turned out to be. The Mets certainly could not envision the coming genius of Darren O’Day or else they would not have lost him on waivers last April to the Rangers to promote Nelson Figueroa. Nobody saw Oakland closer Andrew Bailey as a Rookie of the Year or David Aardsma and Ryan Franklin as powerhouse closers.
Relievers are volatile, up and down. So teams can luck into late-game solutions. You cannot say the same for elite starters. Put it this way: The Mets have a better chance of unearthing Francisco Rodriguez’s set-up man than finding an internal solution when John Maine, Mike Pelfrey or Oliver Perez inevitably break body parts or hearts.
Their best rotation safety net is Mejia, who became a top-30 major league prospect as a starter. But only 10 of his starts, to date, are above Single-A. So, with an eye on the long season, let Mejia refine at Triple-A. If he continues to be as tempting as he is now, then he will be quite a gift come June 1 in whatever role he is needed.
joel.sherman@nypost.com