PORT ST. LUCIE — Asdrubal Cabrera walked through the clubhouse Monday, shaking hands with his new Mets teammates and coaches and made an immediate impression with the size of his muscular arms.
“Did you see those arms?” manager Terry Collins later asked rhetorically.
The 30-year-old Cabrera received a two-year contract worth $18.5 million from the Mets this offseason with the idea of bolstering a shortstop position in need of offensive improvement. And the Mets will live with the fact Cabrera’s defensive metrics, in terms of range, were among the worst in the major leagues last season.
Cabrera joins Neil Walker to give the Mets a different look up the middle. Last year the club went with a combination of Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada at shortstop, with Daniel Murphy at second base.
“What I know so far is they’re really good guys,” Cabrera said of his new teammates. “They are a team and work together and had a really good year last year. That is good motivation to keep playing hard, to work together as a team.”
Cabrera had a .265/.315/.430 slash line last season with 15 homers and 58 RBIs for the Rays. A hamstring injury derailed him early in the season, but he still appeared in 143 games. Over the final two months, after returning from the disabled list, he had an .884 OPS.
“The first half of the season was really slow for me,” Cabrera said. “It was hard, but it’s a long season and everything happens, you have ups and downs.”
His best seasons came with the Indians, for whom he was selected to consecutive All-Star teams, in 2011 and ’12. Cabrera was dealt from the Indians to the Nationals at the trade deadline in 2014 and appeared in the postseason.
“He’s a very good player,” Collins said. “You look at what he did in Cleveland those years, and he brings a veteran presence to us again. I will reiterate what I said last year, when Kelly [Johnson] and Juan [Uribe] came, those veterans make it easy on those younger players, they take a little pressure off of them.
“[Cabrera] has got good hands and we think offensively he’s going to add a lot to our lineup.”
But covering ground isn’t among his strengths, according to advanced metrics and scouts who spoke with The Post this offseason. Mets coach Tim Teufel, who relies heavily on analytics to position the infielders, is more optimistic.
“I really don’t see a problem with his range at all,” Teufel said. “From the onset, it’s all about positioning, anyway, and knowing the hitters. He knows the league. He’s going to get to know our pitching pretty quickly. He’s faced some of the guys and he knows some of them.
“A veteran like that, he’s going to pick up pretty quickly where he needs to be on the field. I see film and I watched him with the Nationals and with Tampa Bay, and for me, I don’t think his defense is going to be an issue. I’m very comfortable with him out there.”
Tejada and Flores remain to give the Mets infield depth, but Cabrera, a switch hitter, will be the primary option at shortstop. Walker, whom the Mets acquired from the Pirates in a trade for Jon Niese, will be the primary second baseman.
“I do believe that experience is going to add something to our lineup, because those guys have been on teams that have won, and that means a lot,” Collins said. “They just know how to go about things.”