Well, they have a shot anyway.

The opening for a reserve outfielder seems to have gotten more competitive with word Tuesday that the Mets had inked light-hitting flycatcher Cory Sullivan, most recently of Colorado. Sullivan was more or less a washout as a starter with the Rockies but as I’ve argued here before I generally support attempts to wrangle in “young veterans” with skills (Suillivan has a rep as a superb outfielder and will be 29 years old) to transition to a bench role. I suppose I’d prefer if he could hit too, but we said the same about Endy Chavez.

Sullivan, who wore Nos. 31 and 18 with the Rockies, appears to present some competition forJeremy Reed, whom the Mets acquired in the Putz-Heilman deal and who also just settled on a new contract. The Mets in fact held the very same kind of competition in 2006 when Chavez beat out Tike Redman in a duel of would-be reserve outfielders with modest major-league contracts. May the best scrubeenie win.

The Mets also revealed some addition spring training invitees including Tom Martin, who was a barely-hanging-on veteran lefty the last time the Mets last had him — in 2001 (he wore No. 34 then).Other invitees include fallen lefty pitcher Casey Fossum, formerly of Arizona, and catcher Omir Santos, known as a defensive specialist, who came up through the Yankees’ system but whose only big-league taste came last season with Baltimore.