PORT ST. LUCIE — Meanwhile, over in Mets land (pictured above here this morning with my iPhone) … Had enough of the A-Rod story yet? Yeah, that goes for me, too. And it wasn’t a topic of discussion at all at the Mets’ spring-training complex when I stopped by this morning for the first time since arriving in South Florida for the start of camp later this week.

What seemed a lot more important to the Mets’ brass that I spoke with was the number of players — particularly position players — who are already in St. Lucie working out, even though position players don’t report for another almost two weeks.

I personally saw Johan Santana, David Wright, Duaner Sanchez, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, Ryan Church, Brian Schneider and Eddie Kunz all here this morning after vigorous workouts at Tradition Field on a cloudy, windy day with temperatures in the low 70s. Church and Schneider live not far from here, but still …

More than a dozen prospects and various veterans here on minor-league deals also could be seen doing sprints and throwing, and several pitchers were working out under the supervision of new bullpen coach Randy Niemann and the man he just replaced, Guy Conti (I guess — happily — that Guy really is being kept around instead of being shuffled off like many of us suspected after Pedro Martinez wasn’t re-signed).

Several more regulars (including Frankie Rodriguez) are expected to start rolling in here in the next day or two, even though pitchers and catchers don’t officially report until Friday or begin their official workouts until Sunday.

Mets officials said the heavy turnout is indicative of how eager the players are to make up for the past two collapses.

“They’re ready to get going and get that bad taste out of their mouths,” a Met insider told me. “It’s nice to see.”