BRADENTON, Fla — Maximize potential.

Now that he’s physically able, it’s all Jeff Clement wants to do.

The Pirates’ Opening Day starter at first base in 2010, the 28-year-old Clement is no longer on the club’s 40-man roster. He re-signed with the team as a minor league free agent during the offseason.

First base remains an unsettled position for the Pirates. Clement was acquired from Seattle before the 2009 trade deadline as a left-handed power hitter who may stabilize the club’s first base situation.

Instead, he hit .201 with seven homers, 12 RBI and 37 strikeouts in 144 at bats.

With only eight Grapefruit League plate appearances and two walks to show for them this spring, he does not figure to be in the Bucs’ immediate plans.

“They have my rights,” Clement said. “I have no control over where they assign me. I’ll go and play as hard as I can, wherever it is.

“I’m in Florida playing baseball, wearing a jersey with my name on the back. I’m fortunate.”

Clement began the 2010 season in the Pirates lineup. He ended it recovering from microfracture surgery on his left knee, which he underwent Sept. 22 of that year in Colorado.

“With that came a very tedious rehab process,” Clement said. “It pretty much wiped out my 2011 season.”

The 6-foot-1, 225-pound Clement had to place his left leg on a machine — allowing only the machine to move it — for six to eight hours every day for six weeks. That was followed by two weeks on crutches, another six weeks in a brace.

“My wife was pregnant with our second child at the time and our other child was 2, so it was tough being immobilized all that time,” Clement said.

He returned to play 22 games for Class AAA Indianapolis last August, hittong .271 (16 for 59) with a homer and five RBI.

The numbers weren’t outstanding, but Clement was playing ball again.

“I appreciate this game so much more now,” he said. “I no longer worry about things that are out of my control. If I work at my game and have successful results, everything else will come.

“I wish I had this attitude when I was 21. There’s a maturation process, I guess. I know there was with me.”

Clement was the third player picked overall in the 2005 baseball amateur draft when the Seattle Mariners called his name.

But in 129 major league games, he has hit .223 with 14 homers, 38 RBI, 24 walks and 103 strikeouts in 363 big league at bats.

“All I want to do is realize the potential of the abilities God gave me,” Clement said. “I know I haven’t done that yet. I’m only 28. I feel like I still can.”

A catcher through most of his baseball life. Clement’s knees weakened as a reslt. He had two meniscus surgeries and when he was traded to the Pirates in 2009 “I figured my catching days were over.

“I rushed back from a surgery in the spring of 2009 and caught for Class AAA Tacoma and my knee blew up on me.”

His Opening Day start in 2010 was the first major league game Clement ever played at first base.

He admits to still feeling pain in the knee, but nothing to the point of hampering his play.

“A little bit of pain is always going to be there,” Clement said.

As for his baseball future, Clement is more focused on his baseball present.

He’s been getting plenty of at bats in “B” games in Florida and in games against traveling teams like The Netherlands.

“I feel like the ball’s beginning to jump off my bat again,” Clement said. “Start looking ahead too much and you fail on the field.

“There’s a lot of decision-makers who will determine what direction my career will take. I have no idea if I’ll be here or somewhere else the next day or the next year. That’s something you accept as a professional athlete.

“I just want to play ball and have fun. It’s a game,” he added.