MLB

Mets need Lucas to live up to potential in Citi

NO MAAS: With Lucas Duda, the Mets are hoping to avoid a situation like the Yankees had with outfielder Kevin Maas, a left-handed hitter with power to spare whose time in the majors didn’t last long. Duda will get his chance this season in an outfield where he seems to be the only sure thing, writes The Post’s Joel Sherman. (
)

PORT ST. LUCIE — One day you are Kevin Maas. You have lefty power and pop a few homers and the roster is so terrible around you that the opportunities appear limitless.

Then tomorrow comes quickly. By the time the winning begins, you are long gone, an afterthought, a do-you-remember-him from a failed past.

Maas homered his way into the Yankees’ plans at age 26, was back in the minors by 28, was out of the organization by 29 as all the Jeters and Posadas and Pettittes raced by him.

Now, here is Lucas Duda. Lefty power on a roster so terrible the opportunities appear limitless. He popped enough homers at 25 to entice, fell to the minors at 26 and now is back at 27 to try to be part of an outfield so brutal he actually is the sure thing.

But even on this version of the Mets, the opportunities really are not limitless. The Mets — with their front-office philosophies incubated at the outset of the Moneyball A’s — will tolerate strikeouts and poor speed and defense from the Amar’e Stoudemire catalogue in exchange for walks and homers.

What is becoming intolerable is waiting, in this case for Duda. Fred Wilpon has said the financial restraints are off now and even if that is as believable as the Easter Bunny, there is a sense the Mets will have more money to spend next offseason than in recent years, and the bulk of it will be earmarked for the outfield as the Mets hope Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud are their Pettitte and Posada passing everyone by.

So this is Duda’s 500-600-plate appearance chance — what looks like a final audition, at least at Citi Field. To say the Mets need him defines understatement. Right now, David Wright and Ike Davis are on an island, slated to hit third and fourth in a lineup that looks more troubled than Gary Busey.

The plan, at present — really, no kidding — is to have Marlon Byrd hit fifth to split up lefties Davis and Duda. Byrd is 35, hasn’t hit fifth consistently in his career, had a .488 OPS last year and failed a PED test.

“As we try to piece this together, we need to find guys who can produce runs for us,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “We know it is in this guy [Duda]. We need to get him on track and confident. He is big for us because when his swing is right he can hit lefties, too, and can drive the ball to all fields. If you give him 500 at-bats, he’s going to get 30-35 mistakes.”

That is the exchange rate. Plenty of teams will throw away defense for power, specifically lefty power — think the Tigers with Prince Fielder, the Phillies with Ryan Howard, the Diamondbacks with Jason Kubel. But it can’t be a rumor, a promise of those 30-35 homers. And it can’t be a continuing victim of ebbing confidence and nuisance injuries — two issues that have handcuffed Duda, up to and including this spring.

Duda said the questions of confidence are misapplied, that internally he has plenty of self-belief, that he simply does not make it overt. As for the injuries, he had offseason right wrist surgery and between that and tinkering with the timing mechanism in his swing, Duda opened the spring 0-for-7 with six strikeouts. Then he was scratched to address an eye matter that turned out to be nothing. But last Saturday against the Braves, he launched a double to the left-center gap and homered.

The bad and the good fully on display.

“I know that last year I was given a great opportunity to get at-bats and be the everyday right fielder and I squandered it,” said Duda, 3-for-19 with no walks and 10 strikeouts this spring.

He went to Triple-A, “felt sorry for myself” and finally recognized “I am here because I didn’t play well.” For many, the chances would have expired. But lefty power — like lefty pitching — gets more looks. And bad teams like these Mets extend those looks a little longer.

The Mets recognize they probably are going to have to platoon in center and right, and that is why they are crossing fingers Duda is a healthy, productive, full-time left fielder. He has that 35-homer potential. But, right now, he is 29 homers in 250 major league games. He has his job as much by default as distinction, promise more than production.

The clock is ticking, even for a patient organization currently without good alternatives. If Duda does not translate the power potential in 2013 even these Mets can say this:

No Maas.