Luis Rojas opens up about new Mets approach, fixing Edwin Diaz

PORT ST. LUCIE — Spend an hour with new Mets manager Luis Rojas and you begin to see the character, the strength of will and determination, the baseball-first mentality and the lack of ego.

Sure, there will be sinkholes to navigate because these are the Mets.

Rojas, though, strongly believes there will be Mets magic ahead. But to get there, there has to be unity. That will be his central message to his team when it gathers together this month; pitchers and catchers report Feb. 10 and the first full-squad workout is Feb. 17.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought. Every day I think about, you think of so many things you can say,’’ Rojas told The Post on Monday, offering a spring-training sneak preview as he takes over as a major league manager at the age of 38.

“Everything is going to be positive,’’ he said. “We have a positive group of guys, tool-wise and skill-wise and personality-wise, so we are going to hit on that a lot. We are going to talk about what we are targeting in spring training.’’

What exactly is that?

“Number one is moving in the same direction,’’ Rojas said. “We come in from different areas, but we have to move in the same direction. There are some things that we are going to bring up that we are going to have that communication with the guys. Things are going to be specific to the product that we have. A play is going to work because we have Amed Rosario there; a play is going to work because we have Robinson Cano there. We want everything to make sense in the product that we have.’’

Players will know their roles. Rojas is a unifier. That is the reason Mets players were happy with his ascension to manager Jan. 22 after the Carlos Beltran fiasco.

Rojas, the son of Felipe Alou, has managed more than a thousand games in the Mets system, making a stop at every level, building a bond with many players, and another 300 games in winter ball, which has prepared him for this moment.

“Someone said it best,’’ Rojas said as the late afternoon sun began to drop in the sky on a perfect 74-degree day. “ ‘The minor leagues teaches you how to lose games, winter ball teaches you how to win games.’ I did both. I saw different ways you can lose games in the minor leagues and how to win games in winter ball because there is more competition than in the minor leagues.’’

Winter ball also teaches you how to handle so many different players and situations with overcrowded rosters.

His managerial journey began when his father was managing the Expos Single-A team in West Palm Beach.

“I was young, like about 8 years old,’’ Rojas said. “I remember one time I was yelling at the players because they were striking out. My dad sent me to the office for the rest of the game. So I learned my lesson that day.’’

His father made it clear to him “that’s not right to treat players that way.’’

He learned what makes a team a winning team when his father managed the Expos, a super-talented team (74-40) that was on its way to great things when the strike hit in 1994.

“Being in the big-league clubhouse with the guys, Pedro [Martinez], my brother Moises [Alou], Larry Walker, who was my favorite player, and those guys and just watching how well they got along, that was cool to see, stars getting along on and off the field,” Rojas said. “A lot of great players, young and talented.’’

That is what he wants to bring to the Mets.

“That’s what I think we have,’’ he said.

It’s not just about numbers or talent, it’s about becoming a team and that is why he will deliver the message about coming together.

For players he never managed in the minors, such as Noah Syndergaard, a bond was built in the weight room. Syndergaard recently referred to Rojas as the most “jacked manager in the league.’’

Rojas, who spent last season in Queens as the Mets’ quality control coach, hit the ground running, just returning from a Cano charity event in the Dominican Republic. He has had long talks already with most Mets, including one Met who must be fixed, Edwin Diaz. He came away from that meeting confident Mets fans will see a different Diaz than the one who struggled mightily his first year in New York.

“I saw Edwin dominating in the beginning and his confidence really high, but then he went through adversity with his stuff as well and being there last year can help me carry over some conversations,’’ Rojas said. “I saw Edwin last week and he has worked so hard in Puerto Rico just to get himself in the kind of shape where he can perform from Day 1 and be consistent. The key for him is going to be his game preparation and the stuff he is doing now that will carry over. … Always maintain his confidence. He’s got a great group of guys around him and I think that is something that is going to help him out.

“The guys want to get this going,’’ Rojas said of his players, many of whom have been active doing pre-camp workouts. “We have a gifted team and that offseason preparation will carry over and I think that will put us in a position to be successful.’’

We’ll soon begin to see if it can all finally come together under Rojas.

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