Yo wows Mets with his bat-mobile
The Amazin’ spin on his wheels
PORT ST. LUCIE − So Bryce Harper called the Mets “the team to beat’’ in the NL East this season, which seems obvious enough, based on last year’s standings. Yet coming from the reigning NL MVP, who was prematurely fitting himself for a championship ring at this time last year, there may not be four more satisfying words to the defending NL champs at the moment.
Especially Zack Wheeler, the one player willing to talk publicly last spring about how annoyed the Mets were by what they perceived as a lack of respect from the Nationals.
“I saw it,’’ Wheeler said Tuesday with a smile, speaking of the comment s Har per made Monday. “I just thought to myself, ‘all right. We accomplished some things we wanted to accomplish.’ ’’
A mong the Mets’ many accomplishments in playing their way to the World Series, in fact, making Harper eat his words probably ranked higher than most players are willing to admit.
The Nationals’ young superstar seems to have that effect on opponents anyway. In this case he famously said to reporters, “Where’s my ring?’’ when asked for his reaction to the team signing Max Scherzer last offseason.
And though he later insisted it was only meant to compliment Scherzer, the Mets took it to heart.
“I guarantee you we all saw what Bryce Harper said,’’ Wheeler told me in early March, before he knew he would need Tommy John surgery. “We’re going to make it hard for him to get that ring, I guarantee you that.’’
Nearly a year later, Wheeler remains convinced that Harper’s comment gave the Mets extra motivation.
“Me, personally, when somebody says something like that, it pushes me a little harder,’’ Wheeler said. “I can’t speak for everybody in here but I’m pretty sure everybody was on the same page with that.
“Then we went out and won, and if you win you gain people’s respect. So we know we’re the team to beat. Now we’ve gotta go out and prove we can do it when we’ve got the radar on our backs.’’
Wheeler’s regret, of course, is that he couldn’t be part of the takedown, missing the entire season after having elbow surgery March 25.
Now, as he works his way back, scheduled to throw off the mound on Saturday for the first time, Wheeler hopes he can eventually add to the starting pitching dominance that defines these Mets.
He admits now that he was pitching in pain for years, not because of the ligament tear that occurred last spring but a torn pronator tendon in the elbow, and he’s encouraged that he feels none of that pain now. “I knew I was going to need (surgery) eventually,’’ Wheeler said. “T he pronator tear was hurting the past few years; there were days it felt really bad and I didn’t feel like pitching but I went out there anyway.
“I wouldn’t have gone out there if I felt I couldn’t help the team but I still felt I could be effective. I’m just looking forward to pitching without that feeling.’’
Wheeler was hoping to be back sometime in June, and thought he would be throwing from the mound by now. However, the Mets slowed his rehab down, based partly on the success Matt Harvey had last season after extended recovery time from the same surgery, and partly on the medical trend in handling all such cases.
“Both (were factors),’’ Terry Collins said. “I think the doctors’ research is dictating that if you can give them a little longer than 12-13 months, if you can stretch it to 15, the success rate is much higher.’’
Wheeler says he is doing everything possible to make a seamless return, from grinding on the rehab exercises to take stress off the elbow, to consulting with his three fellow Tommy John-surgery survivors, Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz.
He’s excited about what he’s done so far, in particular trying to remodel his delivery after that of deGrom, getting his arm in a throwing position earlier to take stress off the elbow, which will also allow him to stay on top of the ball and improve his command.
“Command is big for me,’’ he said. “I know I’ve got the stuff. I want to be part of this rotation for years to come. We all have top-of-the-rotation potential. It’s going to be fun if we can stay together and stay healthy for awhile.
“I know teams are looking at our pitching now and it motivates them the way it motivated us against the Nationals last year. I hope I can get out there and sort of defend my words this year. Because I said all that last year and I couldn’t do anything about it.’’
In retrospect, Wheeler only said what many of his teammates were thinking, and they backed him up on it. Even Bryce Harper has to respect that.