MLB

K-ROD, PUTZ WILL BOTH GET CHANCES

Jerry Manuel is putting the egos of his two new All-Star relievers to the test next season.

The Mets manager revealed yesterday that Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz will share the closing duties next season, a plan that could cause fireworks because of the personalities involved.

Manuel said the division of the closer role will probably be along the lines of 70-30 in favor of Rodriguez, but the fact Putz will be in line to get more than a handful of chances is surprising.

K-ROD INTRODUCED (PHOTOS)

“I do think that if we are to be where we expect to be, we’ll have to have more than one guy save games,” Manuel said after K-Rod’s introductory news conference in Long Island City yesterday.

“With what [GM Omar Minaya] has provided for us, it gives us that opportunity to not miss a step, so if we have three or four in a row [where] we needed one guy, we feel very confident that we could use the other guy in that same particular role because he’s had success in that role.

“That’s very, very huge for us in the course of a 162-game schedule to have [more than one reliever] that can close games. [K-Rod] doesn’t have to save, say, 75 games. The other guy [Putz] can save 35, whatever. That’s big for us.”

How K-Rod and Putz would handle their roles has been a question mark since last week, when the Mets lured Rodriguez from the Angels with a three-year, $37 million deal less than 24 hours before swinging a three-team, 12-player deal that brought Putz from the Mariners.

It’s a potentially touchy issue because K-Rod – who set the big-league record with 62 saves last year – is entrenched as a closer, while Putz already has expressed reluctance through his agent about strictly being a setup man after serving as the Mariners’ closer.

The Mets are introducing Putz at Citi Field today, giving him a chance to make his feelings clear. As for Rodriguez, he claimed yesterday that he wouldn’t have a problem – up to a point – with sharing some save chances with Putz.

“It just depends on how we get used throughout the year,” said Rodriguez, who didn’t pitch at all in the eighth inning last season with Anaheim. “If I pitch three days in a row, four days in a row, [Putz] will be able to save a game.

“I’m not really selfish. I’m just trying to be the best that I can be in that part, and sometimes things can happen. . . . Hopefully I can stay back there and do my ninth inning without a problem.”

Manuel seemed willing to worry about the bullpen ego issues at another time. He spent yesterday beaming about Rodriguez’s arrival and what it can mean for a relief corps that blew a franchise-record 29 saves last season en route to missing the playoffs on the final day for the second year in a row.

Minaya has overhauled the bullpen since then, bringing in Rodriguez, Putz and ex-Mariner middle reliever Sean Green while dispatching Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis and Joe Smith.

“I’m very excited about this particular acquisition,” Manuel said of K-Rod. “We had some problems in that area obviously when Billy Wagner went down, and to have a young man of this caliber really is uplifting for us as a team, as an organization, really.”

Manuel has done his research into Rodriguez since the signing, talking to AL managers Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Guillen and Ron Washington to gauge their opinion – all of it positive, it turned out.

“[K-Rod] adds a big piece to our puzzle, there’s no doubt about it,” Manuel said. “That’s a huge, huge piece.”

How that piece co-exists with Putz next season, however, bears watching.

bhubbuch@nypost.com