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PORT ST. LUCIE — Position players and pitchers exist as different species occupying the same terrain in baseball’s universe. Their routines and schedules only occasionally intersect, particularly in spring training.
Here in Mets camp, though, shortstop Ruben Tejada and starting pitcher Johan Santana cross those lines and share a special bond. That’s partly because they share an agent, Peter Greenberg. Yet it’s also because Tejada, 23, still could benefit from some veteran guidance, and he is the oldest Latino position player on the Mets.
“Sometimes, because you’re learning English like me, sometimes it’s tough with a different language,” Tejada, a Panama native, said yesterday at Tradition Field. “You feel a little more confident with Latin guys.”
“It’s more comfortable, no question about it,” said Santana, a Venezuelan. “When you’re talking about working here, I’ll tell [Tejada] how I like to do my things. At the same time, he’s got David Wright. We’ve got a great group here.”
It’s hard not to notice how dramatically this group’s composition has changed over the last few years, especially given the hype of Omar Minaya’s “Los Mets” run from his hiring in September 2004 to his dismissal in October 2010. The 2006 Mets’ postseason roster featured 12 players born in Spanish-speaking countries, with three more (Orlando Hernandez, Pedro Martinez and Duaner Sanchez) shelved because of injuries.
When you project the current 25-man Mets roster and conduct the same survey, you come up with reliever Jeurys Familia (Dominican Republic), Santana, Tejada and outfielder Jordany Valdespin (DR), with reliever Frank Francisco (DR) a probable disabled list occupant.
The Mets still conduct the same outreach programs to their Latino fan base, including the annual game in which they wear a “Los Mets” jersey. Their marketing ambitions remain the same. Only their roster has shifted.
“I’ve wanted to put the best players on the field,” J.P. Ricciardi, special assistant to Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, said yesterday. “Not only in life, but if you put a team together, if you start to look at those things, you’re really limiting yourself. I’ve been color-blind when it comes to a team.
“Sometimes, it’s cyclical,” added Ricciardi, who worked as Toronto’s GM from 2001-09. “Sometimes, you look up and you have more Latin players than you had in the past. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have more African-Americans.”
Tejada grew up in a clubhouse with Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran as role models.
“Those guys helped me a lot,” he said.
He keeps in regular contact with Reyes, another Greenberg client, and the two men worked out together for about three weeks on Long Island before departing for Florida.
His English is good enough to communicate on his own with manager Terry Collins, hitting coach Dave Hudgens and infield coach Tim Teufel, and with two-plus years of service time, he is in the position where he can help Mets minor leaguers like Dominican pitcher Hansel Robles, still another Greenberg client. Tejada, like Santana, credited Wright with helping him a lot. Nevertheless, Tejada still looks across the pitcher-position player divide to Santana from time to time.
“They’ve gone through similar experiences,” Greenberg said. “We always try to have our clients talk to each other. In San Diego, we’ve got Freddy Garcia invited there and we’ve got a young guy, Wilfredo Boscan. We asked Freddy to take care of him, teach him a couple of tricks.
“The Latins stick together. Not that the Americans don’t, but the Latins, they’re kind of here facing different odds. They have more of an uphill battle culturally, language, everything. A guy like Johan, all the Latins look up to him.”
“We’ll talk about things,” Santana said of himself and Tejada. “I think the most important one is to make sure that he feels comfortable, that he doesn’t feel like he cannot be the guy. It’s important for him to be himself and to feel comfortable around everybody. He’s very important on this team.”
Indeed, in his second season as an everyday player, patrolling a premium position and potentially the leadoff hitter, Tejada can dramatically impact the fortunes of these 2013 Mets.
“I think the big thing I learned last year is concentrating every day,” he said, “because sometimes we have bad days, sometimes we have good days, but every day is new.”
That’s a lesson that transcends all barriers, be it heritage, position or team.
kdavidoff@nypost.com