PORT ST. LUCIE — Darryl Strawberry didn’t come to Port St. Lucie with any sort of prepared speech for the Mets or any message he wanted to speak about. Strawberry just wanted to get away and be around baseball for a few days.
“I don’t really have [a message],” Strawberry said Tuesday at Clover Park. “I kind of just wanted a break, so I’m taking a break from working to come down and put a uniform on.”
Strawberry is working as a guest instructor in Mets camp this week, something that he has done in the past though only sometimes regularly. The outfielder, who helped both the Mets and Yankees win World Series championships, has been making more frequent appearances with the Mets, as have many former franchise greats since Steve Cohen took over ownership of the team from the Wilpon family.
Strawberry is a fan of Cohen’s biggest offseason move, the hiring of president of baseball operations David Stearns, saying he sees similarities with how Frank Cashen built teams with an eye toward sustainable futures in the 1980s.
“He’s doing exactly what Frank did,” Strawberry said. “He’s doing a good job because he’s looking at the future of the New York Mets. He’s looking at the talent, and he’s looking at the current team right now. What the needs are. Which is good. Just because the owner has a lot of money, but he’s not throwing it away. If you’re going to invest it, invest it in the younger players. And I think that’s what Frank really did.”
Strawberry, now 61, who will have his No. 18 retired June 1 at Citi Field, is hoping to forge a relationship with Stearns. He commended his baseball IQ and said he believes that Stearns knows how to win.
Strawberry is also hoping to strengthen his relationship with the Mets and the people around the team. Though he’s not a team employee, he has made it known to Stearns and Cohen that he’s open to coming and talking to the team about the challenges that often arise for athletes playing in New York.
“It’s going to take the younger players that are coming up to really be able to produce and play under pressure in New York,” Strawberry said. “The younger guys need to learn how not to listen to the noise outside. They’ve got to keep themselves focused on the field and what’s important.”
ON THE FARM
Catcher Hayden Senger might be the best young defensive catcher in the Mets’ system, but the 26-year-old backstop is coming off the worst offensive season of his career, having hit just .188 with a .602 OPS in 81 Double-A games last year. However, the improvements at the plate have not gone unnoticed by Mets coaches.
Senger, an Ohio native who played college ball at Miami (Ohio) with right-hander Grant Hartwig, used the offseason to work on getting the ball into the air more with a hitting coach in Nashville. He showed some of that work over the weekend when he hit his first opposite-field home run, the Mets’ first one of the spring slate.
More power is the goal
“More homers,” Senger told the Daily News. “But I think it will create more line drives on the pitches that I was grounding out on previously, or flailing at. I can actually barrel it and get it in the air.”
Drew Gilbert, the outfielder who came to the Mets from the Houston Astros in the Justin Verlander trade last summer, logged his first Grapefruit League hit Tuesday against the Miami Marlins, getting a two-run single under the glove of the third baseman.
Left-hander Nate Lavender continued to impress with his second consecutive scoreless innings. He needed only nine pitches to retire the side in order in the sixth against the Fish, striking out one.
DEBUTS ON DECK
Edwin Diaz is finally ready to field his position. The Mets closer threw live batting practice for the third time this spring Wednesday morning and took PFP for the first time. However, the Mets still aren’t ready to use him in a Grapefruit League game. Diaz will throw another live batting practice session and then pitch in a backfield game before getting into a spring training game.
Outfielder Starling Marte is expected to get into a game for the first time since last summer Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals at home. Infielder Jeff McNeil will make his 2024 spring training debut next week, with the Mets being cautious of the partially torn UCL that ended his 2023 campaign a few days early.
