Mets to face postseason hero Daniel Murphy in spring opener

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The real reunion likely won’t come until later, when the Mets face the Nationals in a regular season game. But a preview comes Thursday, when postseason hero Daniel Murphy and the Nationals take on the Mets in the Grapefruit League opener for both teams.

“Real weird, real strange,” Collins said of facing Murphy, the longtime Met. ”But that’s the game and you’ve got to move on. It will be nice to see him. He’s got a lot of great friends on this team, and I’m one of them.”

Murphy hit .288 in parts of seven seasons for the Mets, who drafted him in the 13th round of the 2006 draft. He had been one of the longest tenured members of the Mets, who he pushed to the pennant with his postseason power surge.

But the Mets showed little interest in signing Murphy to the kind of long-term deal he eventually landed with the Nationals, who signed him this winter to a three-year, $37.5 million deal.

Murphy is expecting his first game against the Mets to draw plenty of attention.

“It’s not the first time I’ve spoken to the New York media,” Murphy told reporters at Viera, Fla. “They treated me fairly. I hope they say I treated them fairly, too. I tried to be accessible. I thought the media was very fair during my time there. It would be good to see them again.”

Many of the Mets’ veteran players will not be making the trip. For instance, Mets captain David Wright will be eased into action. He was not on the team’s travel list.

However, the coaching staff and Collins will be along for the trip. There will be some catching up.

“But after the initial, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ we’ve got to go play,” Collins said.

Wheeler throws off bullpen mound

Zack Wheeler, the 25-year-old righthander who had Tommy John surgery last May to repair a torn ligament and tendon, threw about a dozen pitches off a bullpen mound in his second throwing outing of the spring.

Wheeler, who missed the entire 2015 season and remains on track to return in July, said he is taking his rehab one day at a time.

“Everything feels good; I’m recovering well,” Wheeler said, noting that the most serious injury he’d ever had before was a blister under the nail of the middle finger on his pitching hand.

“I don’t ask a lot of questions [of Mets rehab coordinator Jon Debus],” he said. “I show up in the morning and he tells me the plan for that day, and I do it.”

Wheeler said that although it is reassuring to him to see others who have undergone the Tommy John procedure returning successfully to pitching, “it’s better for me not to look too far ahead.

“That’s just the way I am,” he said. “If I look ahead too much, I think it will slow down the process a little bit.”

Granderson returns to field

Rightfielder Curtis Granderson, who had missed two days of workouts because of eye irritation, returned to the field Wednesday. Granderson played catch, took some ground balls in the outfield, ran wind sprints and took some batting practice.

Mets spring opener vs. Nationals

The Mets open their spring season Thursday with a game against the Nationals about an hour up the road in Viera. Scheduled to pitch are Rafael Montero, Gabriel Ynoa and Jeff Walters. Max Scherzer is scheduled to start for Washington.

With Paul Ivice