Ready or Not, Here Comes Duda The Mets decided to gamble on Lucas Duda after he hit .292, drove in 50 runs and slugged 10 homers in 301 at-bats last season. LUCIE, Fla. - With the expectations and uncertainties that enwrap him, Lucas Duda has in many ways become a perfect emblem for the Mets" state of affairs at the start of the 2012 season. At age 26, Duda has displayed equal measures of prodigious power and youthful insecurity during his 129 games as a major leaguer. He might not be ready to be an everyday slugger in the middle of the lineup, and he may be overmatched defensively in right field, but the Mets do not have many other choices as they begin the 2012 season Thursday with their home opener against Atlanta. With a payroll reduced by a record $50 million since last season, with virtually no depth on the major league roster, the Mets are handing Duda the full-time job, no questions asked, and hoping, not completely unreasonably, that he will prosper. And if he can defy skeptics and hit 35 home runs this season and pile up 100 runs batted in, then the Mets, by extension, might surprise some people, too. All of this may be asking a lot of a gentle giant of a player - he stands 6 feet 4 inches and weighs 255 pounds - who was taken in the seventh round of the 2007 draft and was not particularly touted as he worked his way up through the minor leagues. But his .292 batting average, 50 R.B.I. and 10 home runs in 301 at-bats last season, along with a healthy .370 on-base percentage, got the Mets thinking that they might have stumbled onto something. And until proved otherwise, that is what they will keep thinking. "You don't like to rely on a player as young and inexperienced as Lucas," Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson said, "but based on what we saw last year and given our current situation, we will rely on him." It was late last summer, after Carlos Beltran was traded to the San Francisco Giants, that Duda was given more playing time. Suddenly, a player who went 1 for 33 when he was first called up by the Mets in September 2010, who seemed utterly intimidated by his major league surroundings, seemed to have gained his footing. He hit and kept hitting and allowed Alderson to say, you're the right fielder next season, and turn his gaze to other issues, particularly the bullpen. This spring training, the hard thwack of Duda's bat, and the hiss of baseballs propelled off it, were some of the distinctive sounds at the Mets" camp and reinforced the idea that the team is not simply dreaming when it comes to Duda. And while spring training statistics are often meaningless, Duda's four home runs in exhibition games and a batting average that hovered around .300 provided some additional reassurance for the Mets" front office. "Obviously, he's got that power, that raw power, which scares pitchers out of the strike zone," said Dave Hudgens, the team's hitting coach. He reminds me a ton of Jason Giambi - that strength, the plate discipline, he can use the whole field, make adjustments. "It's nice to be compared to good players," Duda said when told of Hudgens's comment. But I'm myself. I can't really try to be Jason Giambi. I know that sounds bland and vanilla. It does, and Duda, despite his rising prominence, remains a relatively quiet presence on the team. But it is neither his power nor his personality that are at issue. More than anything, it is his defense and whether he can actually man a challenging position that he played only 25 times in 433 games in the minor leagues. It is possible that he will continue to be a first baseman with the wrong glove on his hand. "It's still a work in progress," Duda said of his defense in right field. I just want to be adequate out there, try to keep the runs to a minimum. Tom Goodwin, who has been working extensively with Duda in spring training as the Mets" new first-base coach and outfield instructor, agreed with Duda's modest goal. "We're looking forward to him having a pretty good year, but it doesn't have to be great one," Goodwin said of Duda's defense. It might end up being that way, but it doesn't have to.