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After seven weeks of workouts, 33 Grapefruit League games and maybe too many injuries to count, manager Terry Collins felt the need to speak with his players Saturday night as the Mets were arriving home from spring training to begin the 2013 season.
The crux of the manager’s message — “play hard” — might have seemed simplistic, but for a franchise with limited star power, it was an appropriate reminder of what is needed for the Mets to have a chance at competing this season.
“We just don’t show up and play here,” Collins said yesterday. “There’s expectations to play in this city and our fans deserve maximum effort each and every night so when they leave here they want to come back the next day win or lose. I know we’ve got the right guys in place to do that.”
The Mets will open the season today, when they face the Padres at Citi Field, as no better on paper than the fourth-best team in the NL East. Now it’s Collins’ and the players’ jobs to slowly begin incinerating that paper and trying to become this year’s version of the 2012 Athletics or 2011 Diamondbacks.
Why should anyone believe in the Mets?
“We have good players,” David Wright said. “I think we’ve got guys that understand their role, guys that know how to play the game. One of the biggest things going for us is we don’t have guys with big egos, so the way we’re going to play the game is good for winning baseball games.”
The sobering fact is nearly half of this year’s estimated $95 million payroll is either on the disabled list or gone. Johan Santana (DL), Jason Bay (buyout) and Frank Francisco (DL) account for about $43 million in payroll this season, leaving the Opening Day roster near the small-market Padres’ or Royals’ tax bracket.
So there will no shortage of skepticism about the Mets, especially if the team struggles early.
“That’s fine, as long as the organization believes,” new addition Marlon Byrd said.
Does the organization believe?
“You tell me one organization that believes their team is not going to win,” Byrd said.
The challenge figures to be scoring runs, after general manager Sandy Alderson whiffed in attempts to add a big outfield bat over the winter. Lucas Duda, Collin Cowgill and Byrd are the expected outfield behind Jon Niese for today’s opener. Though Cowgill and Byrd each had a strong camp, that won’t matter once the national anthem is sung and the real season begins.
Wright and Ike Davis represent the team’s real pop, with questions about the remainder of the lineup.
“It’s an offense built around grinding out at-bats,” Daniel Murphy said.
“We’ve got a couple of guys in the lineup that can pop three-run bombs, but it’s grinding out at-bats and keeping the line moving.
“It’s a really good mix of young guys still trying to prove themselves, but also some veteran guys who have been through it before that can help out the younger bunch.”
New faces have joined the bullpen, with veterans LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Atchison and Brandon Lyon added to set up for Bobby Parnell and join Josh Edgin, Scott Rice, Jeurys Famila and Greg Burke.
John Buck, who came to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey trade to Toronto, is the new starting catcher. Jordany Valdespin and Mike Baxter are the key bats off the bench today.
Here come the no-name Mets.
“You look up and down our roster and you don’t see a ton of household names,” Wright said. “But you’ve got guys that know how to get the job done and what their role is on this team.”
mpuma@nypost.com