TAMPA — If Starling Marte was getting extra attention among Mets players after a slow spring training, it was because of the illness that derailed him last season.
But Marte arrived at camp feeling as if his health questions had been answered.
He departed on Monday, saying nothing had changed in that regard.
The Mets consider that a win.
“I continue to think with Sterling that the most important thing is health,” President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said a day earlier. “And what we saw is that he’s a healthy player.”
On this day, Marte was hit directly on the helmet by Clay Holmes’ breaking ball in the fifth inning, but he left the game in good spirits.
He is “okay,” according to coach Carlos Mendoza.
Marte, who missed the final two months of last season due to groin discomfort, was not spoiled this spring.
Playing as a regular right fielder, Marte displayed his athleticism and strong shoulders even though his bat was quiet.
This spring, he hit .159/.245/.182 with one stolen base.
“We’re going to be working on a lot of different things during spring training, so we just have to make sure we’re able to go out there and get the reps we need,” Marte said through an interpreter. “Of course you have a reason to ask because you can see those numbers, but those numbers don’t really matter.”
Marte, 35, underwent rehab in the offseason and satisfied himself and team officials that he is healthy considering his appearance in the Dominican Winter League in January.
Now, you’d like to think the Mets have a version of the player who helped the team reach the playoffs two years ago with 18 home runs and a .292/.347/.468 slash line in 118 games.
“I worked hard this offseason to fix a lot of things that went wrong physically last season. So being able to play in those games in the winter league and being able to run the bases, I felt good there. Once you get used to it, it’s time.” It just clicked,” Marte said.
“Going into spring training, I felt physically okay. I just knew I had to keep doing the same thing in order to get on the field, so when I got into spring training I didn’t have any worries. There wasn’t any.”
Still, Mendoza has discussed the possibility of taking over as DH this spring with Marte.
That was before the team signed JD Martinez last week to become their regular DH.
However, Marte, who was initially reluctant to play as DH, has had further discussions with Mendoza since Martinez’s arrival and said he is open to the possibility.
Mendoza said Monday that “some” of his starts at DH could come during Martinez’s 10 days in the minor leagues before the season begins, when he accumulates at-bats.
“it is, [Mendoza] Marte said it could be good for me in the long run, how my body could benefit from it. “After I signed, we had to talk it over again and I said if they wanted to do that, I could play DH some days and still do it. [Mendoza] Since it wasn’t something I did, I was able to talk about it in an easy-to-understand manner. ”
Marte said the Mets added players to the lineup that Martinez seemed to be missing.
“When you have a hitter like that, you’re going to make an impact, and I felt like we needed that type of impactful bat in the lineup,” Marte said. “He can enhance our efforts as a team and make the pitchers at the plate think more. We’re going to get on base and hope he hits us a lot during the season.”
