Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Meet the Jersey guy eyeing improbable run at Mets roster

PORT ST. LUCIE — The Old Bridge High School baseball team cut Anthony Seratelli as a freshman. Seton Hall welcomed him aboard only after he walked on to the program. No Major League Baseball team drafted him. Seratelli will turn 31 on Feb. 27, and he has yet to play in a big league game.

“I’ve been beaten down,” the utility man said, laughing, Thursday at Tradition Field. “I just keep trying to get there.”

The Mets’ spring training features sufficient drama already, from the first-base competition to Ruben Tejada’s revival opportunity to the battle for the fifth starter’s job. Make room for a scrappy underdog from New Jersey who will compete for a bench role — and his first major league job.

“There’s no thinking I need to make this a 10-year career,” Seratelli said. “That would be great. But my first goal is just to get there. Let me get my foot in the door. It’s that lifelong dream that every kid has. I just want to set foot on a big league field one time, and go from there.”

Seratelli graduated Seton Hall in 2005, spent a year looking for baseball work and then played for the Frontier League’s Windy City ThunderBolts (out of the Chicago suburb of Crestwood, Ill.) in 2006. After attending an open tryout at the Royals’ complex in Surprise, Ariz., he signed his first contract in organized ball on his 24th birthday, Feb. 27, 2007.

Over seven years, he climbed up the Royals’ system, from Idaho Falls of the Rookie-level Pioneer League to Triple-A Omaha in 2012 and 2013. With Kansas City, he found himself in an odd way station: He proved too good to release and not good enough to promote, or even place on the 40-man roster; he never got chosen in the Rule 5 draft.

“I’ve never moved backwards, and that’s kind of what’s kept me going,” he said. “I’ve been slowed down, but it’s never been going backwards. I just keep going up the ladder.”

Last winter, the Mets contacted Seratelli’s agent, Joe Rosen, literally minutes after the player became a minor league free agent. Both Terry Collins and vice president of player development and amateur scouting Paul DePodesta called Seratelli to pitch the Mets. Collins, one of two managers to reach out to Seratelli (Tampa Bay’s Joe Maddon was the other), completed the deal by telling him he would play mostly shortstop during the Mets’ Grapefruit League action.

With Tejada trying to rebuild his value, with Stephen Drew still a free agent as the Mets disagree with Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, over a price and with Collins preferring Wilmer Flores get regular at-bats in the minor leagues, Seratelli should have a bona fide opportunity to make the roster. Last year’s safety net, Omar Quintanilla, also is in camp, is on a minor league contract like Seratelli. The first-base situation also has to play itself out, with Lucas Duda and Josh Satin set to get consideration as outfielders. But during his camp-opening news conference last week, Collins mentioned Seratelli.

“We liked his profile,” general manager Sandy Alderson said.

The profile features 1) Versatility. He switch-hits and has played every infield position and the corner outfield spots; 2) Plate discipline, exemplified by his .276/.372/.418 slash line in 3,236 minor league plate appearances; and 3) Baserunning smarts, exhibited by his 184 stolen bases in 228 attempts, an impressive 80.7 percent success rate.

“I’m very proud of my on-base percentage. I feel like it gets overlooked a lot,” said Seratelli, who grew up a Yankees fan and is wearing Derek Jeter’s number 2 on his Mets uniform. “But it’s been brought up quite a bit here, which I’m happy about. I know that the Mets are high on that. I hope that helps me make the team.”

Seratelli is unmarried without children, and he doesn’t own a home. If he isn’t playing winter ball during the offseason, he’ll move in with a family member or rent a place for a month or two. The absence of those responsibilities has alleviated much of the stress he might feel over taking a while to achieve his goal.

He walked his way onto his college team and his professional career. So what’s one more push to the top?

“He’s one of those guys who, if you told him he couldn’t do it, he was going to find a way,” Seton Hall baseball coach Rob Sheppard said Thursday in a telephone interview.

“I’m not giving up now,” Seratelli said, laughing again. “It’s too late.”