Jose Reyes has made 3,651 plate appearances in his seven-year career and, according to Baseball Reference.com, not one of those has come as the No. 3 hitter in the batting order. Mets manager Jerry Manuel has a plan to change that, provided Reyes accepts it, and for now, he has. During his first news conference of spring training, Manuel unveiled his plan to drop Reyes into the third spot in the order, a move he toyed with briefly last year at this time, only to quickly abandon it. 'I would love to see him as a third hitter,' Manuel said Friday, 'assuming all the other parts fit.' Manuel spoke to Reyes about the switch on Thursday and Reyes, who is recovering from surgery to repair his hamstring, agreed to do whatever Manuel asks of him. 'I'll do it,' he said Friday. 'If he says that's going to be better for the team, I'm going to do it. Whatever is better for the team, I'm going to be open to doing it.' But as amenable as he was, Reyes did not say he necessarily agreed with the notion that it was, indeed, the best thing. In fact, without any prompting, he added that there was a chance Manuel could again terminate the experiment before opening day April 5. 'Let's see what happens,' Reyes said. 'Because last year he said something and then I hit two or three games in the third spot, and then he said, 'No, that's not a good idea.' So, let's see.' Last year Manuel hit Reyes third for a few days in spring training and Reyes seemed to take to it. Reyes then left for the World Baseball Classic, and when he returned just before the start of the season, he was back in the leadoff position. This time, however, Manuel seems more committed to it, at least based on the way he unfolded the plan. He has clearly given it considerable thought. With Carlos Beltran out for what could be the first two months of the season with a knee injury, Manuel feels the need to get more production out of his lineup. But he also said that if Reyes was doing well when Beltran returned, he would not be inclined to move him back to the leadoff spot. 'He would stay there and I could fluctuate with Beltran at any place between second, fourth, fifth,' Manuel said. What he did not expound on is that the Mets do not necessarily see Reyes as the prototypical leadoff hitter. He is an aggressive hitter who does not take many pitches or draw a lot of walks, he does not have a high on-base percentage, and he has some power, which could naturally increase as he gets older. 'Reyes should be at that period in his evolution that he could be a No. 3 hitter on a good team,' Manuel said. Manuel offered up either Angel Pagan, who will compete for the starting center field job in Beltran's absence, or second baseman Luis Castillo as replacements for Reyes in the leadoff position. He sounded as if he preferred Castillo because of his .387 on-base percentage last season. Last year on opening day, Reyes led off, and Daniel Murphy hit second, followed by David Wright, Carlos Delgado, and Beltran. Castillo was the No. 8 hitter. When the Marlins won the World Series in 2003, Castillo was primarily the No. 2 hitter. Reyes said he would not change his game if he hit third, but Manuel said he would probably drive in more runs and steal fewer bases. Aside from his first year in the majors in 2003, Reyes hit .300 only once, hitting that exact mark in 2006. He has hit at least 30 doubles in each of his last three full seasons, but has never hit more than 19 home runs. 'I don't expect him to try to be a 30 home run guy,' Manuel said. 'I expect him to still hit the triples, hit the doubles and still be a threat, but have a good feel of hitting with a man in scoring position early in the game.' INSIDE PITCH After the Mets had earlier proclaimed Fernando Nieve as the frontrunner for the fifth starter's job, Jerry Manuel said Friday that Jon Niese has shown he is healthy and has taken over as the leading candidate because of his greater potential. Manuel also said that the starting first baseman's job was Daniel Murphy's to lose, contradicting General Manager Omar Minaya's earlier statement that the job was open for competition. ... Kelvim Escobar reported to camp and vowed he would be ready for opening day. Escobar, a right-handed reliever, reported some discomfort in his right shoulder this off-season. The Mets are going to have him go slower than the rest of the pitchers for a while. 