PORT ST. LUCIE — The baseball season starts in 10 days. What you see is what you get. Meet the Mets.
General manager Sandy Alderson said long after Thursday’s 7-6 win over the Braves at Tradition Field the Mets are trying “to keep an eye out, always’’ for trades “but I think it’s very possible that the team we go with Opening Day is already here, the 25 that we already have in camp.’’
Meet the Mets.
And their host of problems.
The good news is the outfield is coming together as planned. The bad news is there are major problems across the infield, everywhere but third base. Throw in Jon Niese’s continuing assortment of elbow and shoulder woes and the Mets have many problems with the season right around the corner.
The Mets have made zero progress at first base, where Ike Davis and Lucas Duda were going to slug it out to see who would win the position.
Davis started on Thursday and went 0-for-3. He is hitting .111 this spring, but has only nine at-bats. Duda has only seven at-bats. The pre-camp plan was to get Davis 100 spring training at-bats, a plan Terry Collins labeled a “pipe dream’’ recently.
Niese appears headed to the disabled list. Dillon Gee appears headed to the Opening Day start.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy has had a frustrating spring because of leg injuries. He first hurt the leg on a slide at second base and now is battling through a calf injury. He has been limited to 14 at-bats this spring. Collins wanted to limit Murphy’s at-bats because Murphy has had a history of overdoing it in the spring and as a result, has sometimes incurred oblique injuries, but he didn’t want to limit his at-bats this much.
Life could be made a lot easier if the Mets went out and signed free agent shortstop Stephen Drew, but there appears to be no play in that direction in the Mets’ frugal neighborhood. Five of the six shortstops who played on division-winning teams last season had a WAR of 3.0 or better. Drew had a 3.4 WAR for the Red Sox.
The Mets have stated 90 wins is their goal this season, which should make a World Series championship shortstop even that much more enticing.
Drew, when healthy, has been consistently one of the top seven or eight shortstops. The Mets, at this point, though, will go with Ruben Tejada, who had his finest day of the spring Thursday.
Asked if he has had any recent conversations with Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, Alderson said, “No.’’
Has the free-agent market changed at all in the last week or so?
“There’s not much of a free agent market left,’’ Alderson said with a smile. “Apparently not.’’
The Mets can only hope Tejada gets out of his funk and Thursday was the start. He struggled mightily last season and produced a 0.3 WAR. The Mets continue to be mentioned in trade possibilities involving the likes of Arizona’s Didi Gregorius, whose WAR last season was 1.4, and Seattle’s Nick Franklin, who is really not a shortstop.
Tejada batted second Thursday in Collins’ lineup, in which the manager had starting pitcher Zack Wheeler bat eighth and center fielder Juan Lagares bat ninth. Tejada picked up three hits.
Early this month, Collins told The Post’s Joel Sherman that he would consider batting the pitcher eighth and someone like Lagares ninth to maximize RBI possibilities for David Wright and Thursday he did just that.
With these Mets you have to be creative. Nothing is done the easy way.
Collins has to remain flexible. While talking about the team’s pitching plans, he said nothing was etched in stone. I asked him when was the last time he etched anything in stone around the Mets.
“Not in a long time,’’ Collins said.
In 10 days it all starts for real for the Mets.
Meet the Mets, ready or not.