PORT ST. LUCIE — Carlos Delgado has been one of the preeminent sluggers in baseball over the past decade, a fact he realizes puts him under the umbrella of steroids suspicion. But the Mets’ veteran first baseman insisted today that he is clean and always has been. “I don’t worry about [the perception of himself], because I know in my mind that I never done anything illegal or out of line,” Delgado said today after the Mets’ first full-squad workout at Tradition Field. “I just go out and play. I take a lot of pride in my preparation and try to be as consistent as I can, and I think I’ve shown that over my whole career.”

Added Delgado: “I’m proud of what I done [and] the way I done it.”

Delgado also was asked about finishing a disheartening second to the since-disgraced Alex Rodriguez in the 2003 AL MVP voting. That was the final year A-Rod admits to using steroids and the year he tested positive for PEDs.

“It’s funny, because a lot of people brought that up,” Delgado said, referring to the 2003 MVP race. “It is what it is. I can’t change what happened. I thought I had a pretty good chance to win it myself before any of this came out. But it didn’t happen, so I wasn’t going to let that kind of overshadow the season I had. Obviously, five years later, I’m not going to let that bother me. It is what it is. I can’t go back in the past and change anything. All I can do is go out and try to have a great year this year.”