“Scrappy.”
“Gritty.”
“Team baseball.”
Ready for your 2013 Mets season?
I have no idea whether we’ll be using the above terms to describe this club six months from now. Yet as the Mets kick off their season against the Padres, we can predict this with confidence: Fans will be just as passionate on Oct. 1 about their franchise player — their top salesman — as they will be today at Citi Field, when David Wright gets serenaded with his new handle.
You might not cherish the upcoming journey. But you’ll love your captain.
“Opening Day is already so cool,” Wright said yesterday, before the Mets held an “optional” workout (everyone attended, even the tardy Jordany Valdespin) at Citi Field. “But to be kind of introduced as the captain, it’s pretty special. … It’s obviously a memorable Opening Day for me.”
To borrow an old phrase from the Mets’ highly paid outfielder Bobby Bonilla ($1,193,248.20 this year), you couldn’t wipe the smile off Wright’s face as he touted his “scrappy” and “gritty” teammates.
And why not? Everyone is always ready to get the heck out of Florida or Arizona, and the World Baseball Classic made this an even longer spring training than normal.
The news of Johan Santana’s season-ending left shoulder injury is devastating; nevertheless, Wright pointed out the rest of the banged-up Mets came out OK. Both he and Daniel Murphy will be in the lineup today, after battling through their intercostal conditions. Shaun Marcum begins the year on the disabled list, but he is scheduled to start next Sunday against the Marlins — we’ll see whether that actually happens.
You have to be blinded by optimism to think the 2013 Mets have a legitimate chance at a playoff run. So you buckle in for the longer trip, the multi-year climb toward respectability that will mark progress this year with the anticipated big-league debuts of Travis d’Arnaud and Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey’s first full big-league season and Jon Niese’s continuing maturation — commencing today with his first Opening Day start.
And you find hope in Wright, the homegrown star who decided in December to forego a potentially lucrative free agency this coming winter to sign an agreement keeping him around through 2020.
“I’ve said it before, he’s always the first one here and the last one to leave,” Niese said. “He has every characteristic of being a captain. He leads this ream very well.”
Terry Collins said, “I think if everybody plays the way he plays, and that’s the kind of players we have here, then things will be fine.”
Unfortunately for Collins and Mets fans, when the team’s lame-duck manager mentioned “the kind of players we have here” in reference to Wright, he didn’t mean, “Perennial All-Stars with a legitimate chance to make the Hall of Fame.” He was referring more to attitude and mental toughness.
Or, going back to Wright’s half-glass-full take of this group: “You look up and down our roster, you’re not going to see a lot of household names. You’re not going to see a lot of flash — sexiness, per se. But I think you’ve got a room full of guys that don’t have those egos, that know how to play team baseball.”
We’ve seen that sort of Mets team in doses each of the prior four seasons, only to lead to mammoth second-half meltdowns.
“We’ve got to maintain it,” Collins said. “The second half this year will probably be maybe the most important part, to make sure we can maintain our start.”
Of course, as my Post colleague Dan Martin pointed out, Collins’ statement makes the huge leap that the Mets can again put up a great first half — without Santana or the traded R.A. Dickey.
That can be the mantra for these Mets, though: Just go with it.
If you’re a fan, go with the notion that Collin Cowgill and Marlon Byrd can be everyday outfielders. That the remade bullpen will protect leads sufficiently. That Marcum will stay upright and provide 30 good starts.
If those concepts don’t come to fruition — which is a safe bet — you still will have Wright on the other side. Leading you to better times, he and you hope — and have some reason to believe — in 2014 and beyond.
“Playing in New York, the stage is provided,” Wright said. “Now it’s time to go out there.”
By re-upping and pitching this undermanned club, Wright already has put himself out there. If you aren’t buying what he’s selling, you surely appreciate the effort.
kdavidoff@nypost.com