In his latest column for ESPN.com, Jayson Stark takes a look at the Mets managerial position and that the latest name on the rumor mill regarding a potential vacancy for the team is Yankees first base coach Tony Pena. Stark adds that Jerry Manuel still has the inside track to get the job full-time in 2009 if he is capable of turning it around. He also notes that Omar Minaya is completly safe for the foreseeable future as well as that the Mets are not planning to make any significant personnel changes until they give Manuel a few weeks.

Pena was 198-285 in 483 games with the Kansas City Royals as a manager between 2002 and 2005. He was named American League manager of the year in 2003 after he led the Royals to an 83 win season after losing 67 in the previous season. He resigned as manager in 2005, 33 games after starting the season 8-25.

Finally, Stark states that an official with one team has spoke with the Mets regarding starting pitcher Oliver Perez and that the Mets are frustrated with his inconsistency on the mound since coming to the Mets in mid-2006. The Mets are about ready to listen to offers for him and intend to replace him in the rotation with Tony Armas Jr. if they can find a taker.

I don’t mind Manuel so far as manager and I think he has done a good job with the cards that have been handed to him. There is not much you can do when you have to resort to guys like Fernando Tatis, Trot Nixon and Damion Easley in your every day lineup every other day due to injuries to the veteran starters. How do you fix that? Get rid of the guy that assembled this team.

As far as Perez goes, the Mets knew what they were getting in Perez. Former pitching coach Rick Peterson was able to work with Perez and got him to put up a respectable 15 win, 3.56 ERA season last year. His numbers aren’t looking too great this year as he stands right now at 6-5 with a 4.98 ERA.

Despite being just 4.5 games out of first place in the division, I still believe that the Mets should be sellers at the deadline, not buyers. This team simply just doesn’t have the look of a winning team. You can go on and say that once you make the playoffs, anything can happen, but with what little the Mets have available to trade if they become buyers, it would make no sense for the future. This team is as old and brittle as they come. The best thing to do is sell what you can, bring back anything in return, and wait out the enormous contracts to these overpriced, slacking veterans on this team.