Collins To Mets: 'Time To Step Up And Play Like Veterans'
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBSNewYork) -- New York Mets manager Terry Collins is letting his players know -- in no uncertain terms -- that it's "time to step up."
The playoffs are 162 regular-season games away. That's all the motivation they should need.
"In the past I've given them a little bit of a rah-rah thing. I didn't do that today too much," Collins said of his annual spring training spiel to his team on Thursday, according to the New York Daily News. "I just talked about expectations. What I think they are, what I think they should be and that it's going to take every single guy to believe in it also."
In the past, Collins has opened camp with rosters that resembled something you'd see in Triple-A. But those players now have years of big-league stats in the books, and some -- like first baseman Lucas Duda and outfielder Juan Lagares -- have made their mark as potential stars.
The middle of the lineup has been infused with proven bats, Curtis Granderson last season and Michael Cuddyer this year. Zack Wheeler is no longer a newbie entering his third pro year and ace Matt Harvey is back from Tommy John surgery.
Add it all up and you have hope in Flushing for the first time in a long time. Collins expects the Mets to be a playoff team, and now his players know where he stands.
"You have to have the mind-set this is going to get done," he said. "These are good baseball players, big-league baseball players. In my opinion, as I have said before, they are no longer young anymore. It's time to step up and play like veterans.
"And if we do that, we are going to be a lot of fun to watch."
That doesn't mean Collins is thrilled with all the postseason chatter from his players. According to the Daily News, the manager let them know that they should do their talking on the field.
"I have probably been guilty of it, too. You get confident in a group of guys, and you start talking a little too much and then all the sudden you have a target on your back," captain David Wright said. "The way I have always viewed it, we have got to be ready to back it up. You can talk all you want right now and some guys have been bold with some of their talk and that's a good thing.
"But now it's a matter of shutting up and going out and there playing and being ready to go on Opening Day," Wright said. "It's not going to do any good to talk and talk and talk, we gotta go out there and do it on the baseball field."
The Mets finished tied for second in the NL East last season and their 79-83 record was the best since Collins was hired in Nov. 2010. New York hasn't made the playoffs since 2006 and hasn't topped 80 wins since '08.
