PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The days that have passed since the instant Duaner Sanchez's right shoulder, his career and the Mets' 2006 season were ravaged now number 932. Multiply that figure by 10, 100 or 1,000.

"That's how many times I've thought about it," Sanchez said as he flashed through the what-might-have-beens he has amassed since July 31, 2006.

Without that cursed taxi accident in South Florida on that date, Sanchez -- and not Guillermo Mota -- probably would have been pitching the seventh inning of Game 2 of the 2006 National League Championship Series. And Sanchez is all but certain he would have accommodated Paul Lo Duca's wishes for a two-strike changeup to Scott Spiezio. How does the NLCS change if Spiezio swings at Sanchez's changeup, not Mota's ill-advised fastball, and strikes out rather than ties the score with a two-run triple?

Remove the accident and the resulting shoulder separation from Sanchez's medical history, and the Mets' pitcher in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS might have been Sanchez, not Aaron Heilman. And how does that change things? Sanchez is all but certain he wouldn't have done Yadier Molina the favor of throwing a changeup and speeding up his bat.

And what about 2007, when Sanchez was a professional wallflower? Or last season when he hardly was the late-inning force the Mets remembered -- and desperately needed? And what about the income that has been lost?

"I've thought about all those things a lot," Sanchez said.

Even now, the what-ifs attack from time to time. But another Spring Training camp is under way, and whatever pain Sanchez experiences now is in his head. His shoulder no longer reminds him of what he endured. No pain lingers from the surgery he underwent in April 2007 to repair the freakish, but not unrelated "football injury" he suffered a month earlier.

At 29, Sanchez is recovered, rehabbed and redicated. And, to his dismay, replaced, too.

Sanchez is well and strong, and he is ready to reclaim his role in the bullpen and help the Mets. But the role no longer is his.

The eighth inning which had become Sanchez's almost exclusive domain before the accident now is the personal property of J.J. Putz. And manager Jerry Manuel has identified Sean Green -- not that Shawn Green -- as the guy most likely to be summoned in the seventh, or even the sixth inning, if the Mets are leading. And even though general manager Omar Minaya has said on several occasion that Sanchez could be the cross-over pitcher the bullpen sorely lacked last season, Manuel noted Tuesday that the need for cross-over skills is diminished.

"Because of the way we're set up now [in the bullpen], the need is not as critical," Manuel said. "The formula had been reworked."

So Sanchez, finally fit, appears likely to be the guy with the new snow blower in the winter of global warming. Green won't pitch every sixth or seventh. Putz won't pitch every eighth. And chances are some bullpen shoulders and elbows will balk at times. But the scenario Sanchez faces clearly differs from what he once had. And all he can do about it is say "I know" and "What can I do about it?"

Nothing -- other than pitch well and accept the cards he has been dealt, even if they have come from the bottom on the deck.

"I just want a job in the bullpen," Sanchez said.

Sanchez almost certainly will be in the mix. And Manuel says there will be work. The Mets won't lead in every game. Innings with the score tied or with the opponent leading by a modest margin have to be pitched, too. Those innings once were characterized by former general manager Steve Phillips as "not insignificant." A left-handed way of putting it, even if the pitcher is right-handed.

So Sanchez will have a role, and it will be a not insignificant one.

"I want to be able to help," Sanchez said. "I couldn't help at all for a long time. So this will be better."

And better than what Sanchez had anticipated.

Sanchez had assumed he'd be swept out of the bullpen by the same wave that carried Heilman, Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis elsewhere. He was all but sure that if he pitched at Citi Field at all, it would be as a visitor. Indeed, once he recovered from the 2008 season -- he was shut down for six weeks after the season -- he began throwing in case he needed to pitch in winter ball to prove to a club interested in him that he, indeed, had recovered completely.

"But I'm still here," Sanchez said. "And that's OK now. I'll do my pitching and see what happens now. What happened since then [the injury], I can't change."