PORT ST. LUCIE — The results, at least on paper, don’t support the positive spring evaluations Starling Marte has received.
Two hits in 22 at-bats would mark an early-season worry for any veteran, but especially Marte — who was limited to 86 games in 2023 due to a groin injury that returned.
But shortstop Francisco Lindor said he never would’ve realized Marte had just two hits until the number was presented to him.
Hitting coach Jeremy Barnes cited high — really, really high — exit velocities as a sign of everything starting to click.
Those velocities were the “flags” last year that warned something was off, but this spring, Barnes told The Post, they’ve reflected a normal Marte.
“Spring training … sporadic at-bats here and there, I’m not gonna put too much clout in that yet,” Barnes said Tuesday. “I just like to see the ball jumping off of his bat again.”
During Monday’s game against the Marlins, Marte blasted a ball 108.5 mph that traveled 398 feet and would’ve been a homer in 10 MLB ballparks, but it was tracked down in Clover Park.
There have been similar instances throughout the spring games, too.
The Mets have less than two weeks to help Marte produce more results, the tangible hits that always make concerns disappear, but for now, they’ll settle for the underlying numbers that suggest a breakthrough could be nearing.
“The results haven’t all been there,” Marte told The Post through an interpreter before the Mets defeated the Astros, 6-5, on Wednesday, “but I see how I’m hitting the ball, I see the direction of where I’m hitting the ball and I’m really encouraged by that.”
The expectation from the Mets, and Marte himself, was that he’d return as their regular right fielder in 2024.
He underwent double-groin surgery following the 2022 season and aggravated the groin again last year, and he hit just .248 with a .623 OPS.
Lindor said it was “very difficult” to watch Marte struggle through the campaign one season after he made the All-Star Game and hit .292. The Mets’ lineup was different without that version of Marte.
He returned to play his traditional outfield spot in camp, alongside Harrison Bader in center and Brandon Nimmo in left, and reiterated Wednesday that he feels good in the field after the recovery.
But the upside of that trio becomes limited if Marte’s numbers at the plate don’t improve.
He recorded two hits across his first three spring games, but a six-game hitless stretch has followed.
He added another 99.6 mph groundout Monday and grounded into two double plays March 9 that both featured exit velocities above 98, but all three instances still ended with outs.
This offseason, Marte said, he focused on the exit velocity and tried to remain strong with his backside during swings.
He flashed strides during the winter league games with Leones del Escogido, and that was when Barnes also realized that the ball kept “jumping off the bat.”
It had some pop to it. When that didn’t happen in 2023, Barnes recalled thinking, “OK, what’s happening here,” then realizing that other layers — weight room numbers, bat speed, other metrics the coaching staff could monitor — had faltered, too.
While Marte’s average exit velocity jumped from 86.8 to 88.2, the number of hard-hit balls — an exit velocity of at least 95 mph — dipped from 125 to 98, according to FanGraphs, and “the explosive power wasn’t there,” Barnes said. The numbers were a bit deceiving.
“For whatever reason, I’m not the medical staff, but like something just didn’t quite feel right,” Barnes told The Post. “It wasn’t there.”
That, as of now, has changed this spring. The numbers are still deceiving, but this time, it’s different.
Manager Carlos Mendoza agreed he has been encouraged with Marte’s at-bats, citing a bases-loaded walk Tuesday — on a 3-2 pitch — that allowed the Mets to score their lone run. He’s “impacting the baseball,” Mendoza said. In control of the strike zone.
But the hits are still missing for now.
“He adds a five-tool player,” Lindor told The Post. “He can hit for power, he can hit for average. He can run bases. He can play good defense. He can throw. … A player that we already had that we didn’t have last year because of injury, and if he’s healthy this year, it should be electric.”