A few days before Johan Santana arrived at Mets camp, manager Carlos Mendoza learned that one of the team’s top starting pitchers, Sean Manaea, had grown up idolizing him. So Mendoza plotted with Santana,

The former Mets ace has been receiving a taste of that satisfaction this weekend at Clover Park, where he is serving as a guest instructor for the team.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Mets left-hander Sean Manaea was having breakfast at Clover Park on Saturday when he looked up and saw Johan Santana, who he describes as his “first true baseball hero,” standing there. “He shook my hand,” Manaea told reporters standing at his locker. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Yeah, it was crazy.”