Mets juggling four second basemen

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The Mets have until Opening Day to settle on a second baseman, but the first significant decision regarding the position will come on the team's March 14 off day, manager Terry Collins said Thursday .

With four candidates fighting for the job -- Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy, Brad Emaus and Justin Turner -- Collins will have to start trimming the field around then to give the favorites more playing time. As it stands, he has been rotating starts among the four, and the small sample sizes are making it difficult to gather data on each.

Collins plans to start Turner at second Friday against the Marlins, with Castillo the DH, and the option to use Murphy or Emaus at third allows them to get more at-bats.

But Collins needs to see more of the latter two at second to get a better read of their defense. That's especially true of Murphy, who lamented to Collins that he's not getting chances to turn a double play.

"His leg is not a question,'' Collins said. "I hope we get some double plays to see how he reacts to them."

Extra bases

Jason Isringhausen pitched a scoreless inning against the Cardinals, and it seems as though it's Opening Day or nothing for the reliever, as he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "If I don't make it, then there's a reason I didn't make it, and that will be good enough reason for me to go home." . . . Sandy Alderson was optimistic that Ronnie Paulino will join the Mets by the weekend, but the catcher told The Associated Press in the Dominican Republic that visa issues will delay him until at least next week.