PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets’ new $60 million cleanup hitter sees the makings of a “Grand” outfield.
“It’s awesome,” Curtis Granderson said Sunday upon his arrival to camp. “You’ve got youth. You’ve got experience, you have energy and you have athleticism. I think that is the main thing you have to have when you’re out there in an outfield.”
Granderson joins Chris Young, Eric Young Jr., and Juan Lagares in the Mets’ outfield mix. Granderson is expected to play right, with either Lagares or Young in center and Young or Young Jr. in left.
The Mets are hoping for improvement in the outfield from last year, when Marlon Byrd, Lagares and Young Jr. jelled midway through the season to give the team a respectable unit until Byrd was dealt to the Pirates.
“There’s only three of you out there and you try to make it as small as you can,” Granderson said. “So no matter what the combination happens to be, I think it’s going to be fun for all of us out there.”
Granderson, who spent the last four seasons with the Yankees, made headlines at his introductory news conference in December by saying “true New Yorkers” root for the Mets, but said his comment wasn’t meant to tweak his former employer.
“It definitely wasn’t a shot by any means to anybody,” Granderson said. “The [Yankees] organization from top to bottom, including the fans, have been absolutely amazing for me and my foundation over the four years I had with the New York Yankees.
“[The comment] was just something interesting I had heard consistently over time being throughout the city of New York. I felt like saying it, but it definitely was not anything that was meant in a negative way, so I apologize to anybody who took it the wrong way by any means.”