PORT ST. LUCIE — Lefty Jon Niese joined the Mets’ voluntary workout party here yesterday. Along with newly signed Chris Capuano, that makes two lefty major league starters in early camp. That gives both pitchers a leg up on lefty Ollie Perez, who has not yet found his way to Digital Domain Park.
In Perez’s defense, he did pitch winter ball this year. Not well, but the lefty threw 392⁄3 innings, giving up 32 walks and posting a 5.22 ERA in Mexico. He pitched 461⁄3 innings last year for the Mets, so he should be well rested. Perhaps he has a good reason not to show up early. Pitchers and catchers officially report Tuesday.
Still, wouldn’t it be nice if Perez came early to get to know new manager Terry Collins and show the Mets he is serious about earning the final $12 million of his three-year, $36 million contract?
This voluntary camp is different than past years; it’s more of a bonding time than anything else. Perez became the poster child for what is wrong with the Mets last season. He had the opportunity to at least start off in a positive way with the 2011 Mets by showing up early. He came last year to early workouts, talked about how he was a new man, a new pitcher, and then in his first throwing session with Johan Santana promptly threw two balls completely over Santana’s head and over a fence that was well behind Santana.
Things went downhill from there as he went 0-5 with a 6.80 ERA.
Perez may have a different game plan this season. He also may be hurting himself more than he knows. At this point, he will be lucky to wind up the situational lefty. With a new management team and new manager, Perez could be released if he struggles. If new Mets leadership is serious about turning around the franchise, the first place to start is to dump Perez at the first sign of trouble. The Mets have enough trouble.
Collins will deal with the Perez situation down the road. On this day, he preferred to talk about how thrilled he was to see Niese.
“I’m just so impressed that he is here,” Collins said of Niese. “I think he is going to have a big year. He knows now what it means to run out there 32 times. You can’t understand it until you do it. And [Capuano] is the guy that can help him. That’s what this is all about. It’s about sharing ideas. It doesn’t always have to come from the coaches.”
David Wright talked about how proud he was to look around and see 31 other players at the voluntary workout.
“You always want guys who put the work in,” Wright explained. “You want 24 teammates who maybe don’t have the talent, but have that work ethic, have that desire; you’d make that trade any day. I think that’s what we have, a bunch of guys who are putting the work in and are dedicating themselves to having a good year.”
Wright, making it clear that he was not talking about players who were not here, went on to say, “You can’t go out there and have a great year as a team unless you have individuals that put up good years.
“So it all starts now with
the extra work, putting the time in. It makes you feel good about the organization when you
see 30-40 guys here a week before pitchers and catchers and two weeks before position players.”
As for Capuano and Niese, Wright said: “Niese has incredible stuff. He’s got the stuff that can dominate hitters. The biggest thing for him is to continue to develop mentally. You love playing defense behind him. He pounds the strike zone, sometimes to a fault, and gives you great effort.
“Cap is going to come in there with a great game plan,” Wright added. “He’s going to execute that game plan and that has everything to do with location.”
Yes, location is everything.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com