PORT ST. LUCIE — Robinson Cano needed a March test for reassurance he won’t be restricted this season by National League baseball.
So last week, the Mets’ new second baseman told manager Mickey Callaway something unusual coming from a veteran player in spring training: He wanted to play in six straight games over as many days, riding the bus for three of them on the road.
Even if two of the games would be as the designated hitter, Cano’s purpose was to test his 36-year-old body for the grind of this season in a new league. Cano spent the first 14 years of his career with the Yankees and Mariners.
“This is my first time in the National League, and there is no DH, so I want myself to get used to right away to being on the field so I could see where my legs are,” Cano said Tuesday on a day off for the entire team — the Mets were rained out against the Marlins. “I feel good, thank God.”
On the days he was the DH during the six-game stretch that ended Monday, Cano still took groundballs and participated in a full array of pregame drills. During the stretch, Cano went 9-for-17 at the plate and raised his Grapefruit League batting average to .475.
Callaway referred to a dinner meeting he had with Cano in the Dominican Republic shortly after the second baseman was traded to the Mets when asked what he has learned about the player this spring.
“Everything he said at that first dinner we were at is true,” Callaway said. “He is all about winning, he is about leadership and he is going to help us win. It’s been very impressive in my mind.”
By just about all measures Cano is happy with his spring, but he also isn’t clamoring for camp to end.
“One day you are not going to be here and you are going to miss it, so I always love to be here,” Cano said. “But nothing is better than the season.”
Cano, who arrived with Edwin Diaz in a December deal that sent Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners, said he is still getting acquainted with his new teammates.
But it’s already clear to Cano that he will be playing behind a potentially special starting rotation, headed by Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler.
“They can throw hard and they know how to pitch — and I don’t want to say just them, I want to say five guys, because [Jason] Vargas, he knows how to pitch, even though he doesn’t throw as hard as the other guys,” Cano said.
“But he knows he can pitch and [Steven] Matz, too. Most of the time when you have guys that can lead the starting rotation like deGrom and Syndergaard, you as a third or fourth starter, you want to follow them and I think this rotation is really good and I love what we have. I am happy with what we have here.”
Cano played in the ultra-competitive AL East early in his career and was just as impressed with the competition in the AL West after signing with the Mariners before the 2014 season. Now he has arrived at an NL East scene that is loaded with potential playoff contenders — the Nationals, Phillies, Braves and Mets all made significant offseason moves.“It reminds me of first when we started in New York and we had Boston, Toronto was a team you had to beat, too, and Tampa Bay,” Cano said. “Then when I went to Seattle, Houston got really good, Texas was good and Oakland started getting good. This reminds me that everywhere I go the division is good. But I love this big situation, I love the pressure. I have been in this situation before.”