Dickey hopes to be passed over for opening day start

The Mets won't know for certain until March whether or not Johan Santana, attempting a comeback from left shoulder surgery, will be ready to go by the start of the regular season.

If he is, Santana will be the clear favorite to pitch Opening Day based on his past successes, including two Cy Young awards and four All-Star seasons.

If not, the assignment probably will fall to R.A. Dickey, the club's most consistent starting pitcher last season.

"I certainly hope that's not the case," Dickey said. "My first reaction would obviously be that I would be honored to do it. But it would be by default, because Johan is our ace."

Though Dickey was only 8-13 in 32 starts last season, he posted a 3.28 ERA in building upon his breakout 2010 campaign.

After battling a foot injury early in the season, Dickey produced a 2.69 ERA over his final 24 outings, striking out nearly three times as many batters as he walked and averaging close to seven innings per start.

Those numbers would give Dickey a heavy advantage to start Opening Day over Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, the other three members of the rotation.

But even Dickey admits that he would defer to a healthy Santana, among the game's top handful of pitchers from 2002-10.

Santana recently began throwing off flat ground after a three-month rest period of rest. He underwent surgery in Sept. 2010 to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder, and at baseball's winter meetings in December, general manager Sandy Alderson called him a "question mark" for Opening Day.

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