The Mets are baseball’s piñata. They’ve made mistakes, and have been blasted, but when pitchers and catchers get together next week in Port St. Lucie, along with early arriving position players, one thing will be in the air that’s been missing in past years: competition.
That’s a good thing. Never underestimate the value of competition. It makes a team stronger and tougher.
“I’m excited,” general manager Omar Minaya told The Post yesterday, just before taking a flight to Florida to set up shop in Port St. Lucie. “There’s going to be a lot of competition in camp. That’s something we’ve been trying to do.”
A minor piece was added when the Mets signed veteran Japanese left-hander Hisanori Takahashi yesterday to a minor league deal worth $1 million plus incentives. He will be thrown into the fight for fifth starter or could wind up being the long man out of the bullpen. Or he could wind up in the minors. That’s what this camp is going to be all about — competition.
The Mets still have an interest in first baseman Carlos Delgado, but only for a minor league deal, so he appears to be history. Delgado may wind up playing one more year because he is sitting on 473 home runs and wants to reach to 500.
There will be battles at first base and catcher, and if the Mets find they don’t have enough at those spots, especially catcher, they will go out onto the trade market to try to upgrade. They insist they have money to spend.
As for catcher Rod Barajas, the Mets have made the decision not to sign him. In their minds, he is not the answer, so it is better for now to throw Omir Santos, defense-oriented Henry Blanco, Chris Coste, Shawn Riggans and young Josh Thole into a spring training battle to see what develops.
The Mets have been hammered for not making enough moves this offseason, but they insist that on the starting pitching front there was no one out there that they liked that much better than their own pitchers.
It’s a healthy Johan Santana at the top of the rotation and then there are the rest. Oliver Perez is the big question mark, and in mini-camp he appeared to be in much better shape and was not pirouetting when he pitched, which is the key for him.
At the start of the offseason, sources told The Post the Mets had targeted one, and only one, big free agent — Jason Bay, and that is whom they wound up signing to a four-year, $66 million deal.
“We had to fix left field,” said one source. Bay adds a level of professionalism and a bat the Mets were lacking. He also is friends with Jose Reyes from their minor league days together — they played together in 2002.
“Jason Bay is a great guy,” Reyes said earlier this month. “We went to the park together every day. He’s going to really help us.”
At first base the Mets will run out a quicker Daniel Murphy, Mike Jacobs, Fernando Tatis and young Ike Davis, who could surprise.
“Ike Davis is going to push people,” Minaya said. Davis’ father, Ron, the ex-Yankee reliever, said his son is ready for the majors “right now.”
Health is again an issue with Carlos Beltran out following knee surgery, but Santana and Reyes have made great progress. Minaya likens Reyes to the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, saying that Reyes can make the other players around him that much better. “Jose can get the offense going,” Minaya said.
“This team has the talent to succeed,” Santana told The Post earlier this month. “I’m very confident about the guys that we have.”