PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For most of last season, Starling Marte played through pain. It began early, with a bout of left oblique tightness in Spring Training. In June, Marte nearly landed on the injured list due to left quadriceps discomfort. The following month, he missed time due to groin tightness. Then in September, Marte suffered the most sinister injury of all: a non-displaced fracture of his right middle finger that cost him the final four weeks of the regular season.

Marte returned for the Wild Card Series, but the pain in his finger, he says now, was a 10 out of 10. More than that, Marte was still dealing with a bout of nagging leg soreness that had bothered him for most of the summer. When he visited a doctor to address it after the season, Marte couldn¡¯t believe the news: he needed surgery on both sides of his groin to repair a group of tendons that had separated from his muscles.

¡°Thank God, it doesn¡¯t hurt anymore,¡± Marte said through an interpreter, three months after surgery. ¡°We just continue to do exercises on it to make sure everything is strong and everything is ready to go.¡±

Although Marte will not be ready to join his teammates for a full complement of baseball activities when full-squad workouts begin on Monday, he said that¡¯s a precaution more than anything else. The outfielder added that Opening Day is not in question.

Still, Marte opted not to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, understanding his value to a club with little outfield depth at the Major League level. The Mets only plan on carrying four full-time outfielders on their Opening Day roster, with Tommy Pham serving as the primary backup for Marte, Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha. (Others, such as Jeff McNeil and Darin Ruf, are capable of playing outfield if needed.)

When healthy, Marte remains one of the focal points of New York¡¯s offense. Despite playing in only 118 games last season (and much of those while battling discomfort), Marte finished with a .292/.347/.468 slash line, 16 homers and 18 stolen bases. The 2021 MLB steals leader noted that with the league¡¯s new enlarged bases, there¡¯s room for him to be more aggressive on the base paths ¡­ provided he can regularly take the field. Now 34 years old, Marte hasn¡¯t appeared in more than 120 games in a season since 2019.

So he¡¯ll be ¡°a little bit of a slow go initially¡± this spring, as manager Buck Showalter put it, because the Mets can¡¯t afford to treat Marte any other way.

¡°First, we¡¯re just going to make sure that we¡¯re strong enough,¡± Marte said. ¡°We¡¯re going to be in the weight room a lot to make sure that we have the strength there. And then, after that, we¡¯re going to take the next steps.¡±