Gee wonders where he'll end up in 2015

NEW YORK -- Amid baseball's annual flow of trade rumors, it's sometimes easy to forget that the names swirling around are those of real people, with real homes and real goals.

Dillon Gee is one of them. Well aware that the Mets have dangled him for trade all winter, Gee understands he may be reporting to camp next month somewhere other than Port St. Lucie, Fla.

"I'll be honest, a part of me [just wants to know]," Gee said in a telephone interview. "But it's not like I'm mad. I understand that that's the way things go."

Because the Mets have six proven starters and only five rotation spots, they hope to unload one of those pitchers this month -- perhaps as soon as this week. Young stars Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom are going nowhere. Jon Niese is the only left-hander, which the Mets value. And Bartolo Colon is worth more to the Mets, the team has concluded, than he would be in a trade.

That leaves Gee, whom the Mets selected in the 21st round of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft and brought to the big leagues in '10. This is the only organization he has known.

"It would be like leaving your second home," Gee said. "I know everybody very, very well. I know the whole organization. I know the media very well. You would be leaving the known to go to the unknown.

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"I'm in a weird situation, and you kind of wonder what's going to happen. But at the same time, I think we all sort of know what we're getting into when we play this sport. It's something that's probably going to happen to everyone at some point. To me, I'm still just trying to get ready every day and get ready to have a great year in 2015 no matter where that is, and let the rest take care of itself."

For Gee, that means commuting daily to Texas Christian University, where he raves about his personal training sessions with the athletic department's strength coach. Gee -- who finished last season 7-8 with a 4.00 ERA, missing significant time due to a lingering right lat strain -- found the TCU connection through Cardinals second baseman Matt Carpenter, who played there.

"Obviously I was disappointed with the way my year ended last year," Gee said, "and I'm doing everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen again."

The only question is where he will pitch. The Rockies, the Giants or Gee's hometown Rangers could be a match, with all indications pointing somewhere other than Flushing. And while he wants to return -- "I think the Mets are ready for that next step of turning into a playoff team, and I would be sad not to be a part of that," Gee said -- he understands he has no control over it.

"Man, I have no idea," Gee said when asked if he expects to be in Port St. Lucie. "I really don't. I try not to think about it. I just focus on my daily workouts and make sure that I'm ready wherever I go, and just do the best I can, wherever that is."