Looking back at a few deals, hindsight is 20/20.

After deciding to pass on giving Chad Bradford the big deal he was looking for, Omar Minaya wound up giving a similar deal to Scott Schoeneweis

Did Omar misjudge the market for Bradford? Perhaps. Bradford has a pretty solid career resume, and considering the inconsistency of middle relief, he seems like a rare commodity.

Another deal that Omar pulled in the offseason was trading Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick.

Henry Owens has been a useful arm in the Marlins pen this year and Lindstrom has put up some pretty solid numbers as well. The jury is still out on Vargas and Bostick. Vargas is pitching for the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs and recently shut down the Iowa Cubs with a 7 inning shutout, yielding just 4 hits and striking out 8. Bostick has been inconsistant for the Zephyrs. In one game on July 30th, he struck out 7 of the first 9 batters he faced. Most recently, he gave up six runs on eight hits over 4 innings against the Oklahoma Red Hawks. Its too soon to tell if this was a bad deal, but early indications are that Omar gave up two pretty good arms. The conventional wisdom at the time was that Omar was getting two younger guys with more upside, for the older Owens and Lindstrom.

The next trade I can't really fault Omar for because Heath Bell did not seem like he was made to pitch in New York. The Mets dealt Heath Bell and Royce Ring to the San Diego Padres for
outfielder Ben Johnson and right-handed reliever Jon Adkins. It could have been the way Bell was not really given a chance to be a 100% member of the bullpen and was mostly shuttled back and forth between the team and the minors, in any event, he seems to be flourishing this year in San Diego.

Here were Omar's comments at the time of the deal…

“Ben Johnson is a versatile outfielder who can play all three spots,
has speed and shown some power, He is
just 25 years old, and we feel he has yet to reach his potential.”

“Jon Adkins has had success on the Major League level and can pitch
multiple innings,” Minaya said. “He's another quality arm to add to our
bullpen staff.”

Omar also signed Guillermo Mota to a  $5 million, two-year
contract. Here are Mota's numbers this year…

Brian Bannister was dealt for Ambiorix Burgos who is recently underwent Tommy John surgery and will not likely see a pitchers mound for quite some time. Bannister has been a solid addition to the Kansas City staff.

Overall, not a particularly good offseason for the Mets in the bullpen department. Its hard to tell how bullpen arms will be from year to year, and the cards the Mets have been dealt have not been nearly as good as last year's set.

I will take a look at the performances of Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano, Aaron Heilman, and Billy Wagner in future post, to see if they were able to balance out the poor return on the arms they received in the deals we have discussed here.