Monday marks a refreshing return to actual baseball for Mets

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The dark abyss that is baseball’s offseason was even darker and more abysmal than usual for the Mets this year. But it finally is over.

Many players already are in town and Mets spring training officially will begin Monday when pitchers and catchers report. They will take their physicals Tuesday and have their first workout Wednesday. Position players will arrive by Saturday, with the first full-squad workout set for Feb. 17.

At long last — at the end of a dizzying offseason that included two managerial hires and one failed team sale to a multibillionaire Mets fan — the focus mostly will be on actual baseball things on actual baseball fields.

“I’m very excited to see guys in uniforms, with baseball gloves in their hands, baseball bats in their hands,” general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said Saturday. “I think everyone is ready for baseball season. Full stop.”

Van Wagenen said it is “refreshing” to be able to focus on preparing for games imminently. If you tuned out after Dominic Smith’s walk-off homer in the finale last September, here is a quick rundown of what Van Wagenen and the Mets have done/dealt with since going 86-76 and finishing third in the NL East:

* Four days of deliberations over the fate of Mickey Callaway, who was fired.

* A month-long search for a manager that ended with Carlos Beltran returning to an organization for which he starred as a player.

* A tentative agreement between the Wilpons and hedge-fund manager/minority owner Steve Cohen, whose purchase of the Mets would have valued the club at $2.6 billion.

* A renegotiating of Yoenis Cespedes’ contract after his encounter with a wild boar on his ranch that resulted in a badly broken ankle last May.

* A parting of ways with Beltran, the only player named in MLB’s report on the 2017 Astros’ illegal sign-stealing.

* A week-long search for another new manager that ended with Luis Rojas being promoted from quality control coach.

* The Cohen deal falling through.

And that doesn’t include the modest roster additions: Jake Marisnick, Michael Wacha, Rick Porcello and Dellin Betances. The last happened on Christmas Eve.

To the roster end, don’t anticipate any major changes from here on out. Van Wagenen said he expects the players he already has to be the bunch the Mets take into the season. To various degrees of seriousness, there have been trade rumors in recent months about Smith, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario and others. Those probably are over for now.

“Now that players are in camp, there is a focus on this group, as opposed to thinking about how to create change,” Van Wagenen said. “Our goal is to take this group and create consistency over the course of the rest of camp. Obviously, circumstances can change. But our … focus is on the guys that are here.”

At the dawn of camp, the Mets don’t have many jobs up for grabs, either.

There is maybe one open bullpen spot. Rojas can name a closer, if he wants, and the top options are Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo and Betances. There may be a bench role or two to be decided, depending on the health of Cespedes and Jed Lowrie.

Most notably, the Mets have six starters — Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Steven Matz, Porcello and Wacha — for five spots, so something will have to give there.

“If we have complete health for everyone that’s on the roster, we’ll be excited to see how roles and matchups end up working out,” Van Wagenen said.

Without many job competitions, spring training will be a time for experimentation, too. Van Wagenen said Cespedes, a leftfielder, could get reps at first base, health permitting. The same goes for J.D. Davis, who is expected to practice mostly in leftfield and at third.

“Really, it’s a matter of having as many players capable of playing multiple positions as possible,” Van Wagenen said, “and determining if there are certain players who aren’t capable of playing certain positions.”

The Mets’ major-league coaches — and many of their minor-league coaches — arrived in Port St. Lucie for their nearly two-month stay about a week ago. On Friday morning at the team’s Clover Park complex, they spent about an hour on a practice field discussing fundamentals, which Van Wagenen points to as a theme of this spring training.

“This is the spring training for our staff and coaches before the spring training for the players,” he said. “The marginal difference between winning and losing has been eye-opening for me. So the focus this spring is having the coaches feel like they have ownership in helping the players do the little things that are going to help us win games in 2020.”