PORT ST. LUCIE — Jenrry Mejia’s path to rejoining the Mets could be through the bullpen.
Though Mejia is officially competing for the team’s final rotation spot, manager Terry Collins suggested Monday the right-hander could be more valuable to the Mets in a relief role.
“What’s our best bet?” Collins said. “[If] we’ve got five good guys and he’s the sixth, we have a spot in the bullpen for an arm like that, with that kind of stuff, that might be a fit for him.”
Mejia went 1-2 with a 2.30 ERA in five starts for the Mets last year before undergoing season-ending surgery in August to remove a bone spur from his right elbow. Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lannan are the other main candidates for the final spot in the rotation.
“One thing we know about [Mejia], he can pitch out of the bullpen — we’ve seen it,” Collins said. “Last year there were some people in the organization who felt maybe he couldn’t be a starter, there is such a maximum effort in his delivery. He proved them wrong. He can go out there and start and get you deep into a game, so he’s got that to his benefit.”
Chris Young has made it clear to the Mets he prefers to play center field. But whether he gets his wish is largely connected to how Juan Lagares performs this spring.
“Center field is where I’m most comfortable,” Young said. “I made that obvious and I understood there are guys up here right now that are very capable of playing center field as well — three or four guys.
“With that being understood, I can get my work in center field and at the same time I need to be working at other positions as well.”
Bobby Parnell had a second mound session on Sunday — he had earlier indicated he planned to throw Monday — and reported no problems in his return from surgery to correct a herniated disk in his neck.