Yes, I’m talking about you Mr. Minaya.

It was November 20, 2006—thirty-one days removed from Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. The Mets had just replaced a broken down thirty-three year old left fielder and replaced him with a 40-year old that is about as fragile as a snowflake.

This was one of the first decisions Omar Minaya made that I second-guessed from the get-go. This was the move that started the immeasurable hatred that I have for this man as the general manager of my favorite baseball team.

Though he has made numerous questionable decisions over the past three seasons, his patience allowed him to make one outstanding trade when he pulled off a deal to acquire the best pitcher in baseball. Had it not been for the deal to bring Johan Santana to New York, I would have a hard time believing Minaya would still have a job.

Many Mets fans around 2006-2007 were enamored with Minaya because he took what was a 91-loss team and put them within one base hit from going to the World Series just two years later. All in all, what did he really do? He took over as the general manager of a New York sports franchise and sold the Wilpons on opening up their wallets to bring two top free agents to New York in 2005. Yes, Omar did do that, and those moves did turn the franchise around, but show me any front office executive that wouldn’t have said, lets go get the best available starting pitcher and best available bat on the free agent market.

Yesterday, Kerel Cooper of OnTheBlack.com asked me on Twitter, “Could the Mets do anything in terms of moves at this point to get you to the ballpark? Curious…”

It really got me thinking. The product on the field starts with the general manager. At this point, nothing about this team impresses me. Looking at it from a Phillies standpoint, nothing on this team truly intimidates me to the point where I’d be worried about my division title. So, what would get me to the ballpark? A new face in the front office.

I feel like I have been hearing the same nonsense year after year since 2006. It goes a little something like, “The Mets are on the brink, and if we sign this guy and this guy this offseason, we can get over that hump.” Well, I have been waiting to get over that hump for three seasons now and I find that my patience is running out. While I have been waiting for the Mets to get over that hump, the Phillies have gotten over that hump and have seen the World Series in back-to-back years.

Minaya seems to have a horrendous lack of understanding for depth and the farm system—and it appears he figured that out, but didn’t want to distribute that concept throughout the various nine positions and chose only to stock up in catchers this offseason.

I refuse to attend any Mets games until there is a new face running this franchise. Quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing Omar Minaya making the decisions for the team I grew up watching nearly every single night since I was eight years old.

This team hit rock bottom in Minaya’s tenure as general manager this past season—and even after two previous collapses, still ownership refuses to change the direction in which this franchise is headed. I’m sick of seeing the Moises Alou’s, the Julio Franco’s, the ridiculous 3:00am firings of managers, the asinine assistant general manager that challenges our minor leaguers to a fight, the constant disappointment put forth by the baseball team that Minaya puts together year after year.

How much more embarrassing can this franchise get with Minaya continuing to run it?

Please Mr. Wilpon. I’m begging you. Save yourself anymore embarrassment. Get rid of this guy.

Follow Gary Grund on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gargrund.

The Mets certainly have some question marks. Is a rotation of Johan Santana and the “Human Question Marks” sufficient to compete? Can the Mets reasonably rely on Mike Pelfrey to revert to 2008 form? Similarly, will Oliver Perez revert to pitching like a Major League caliber starter?

Are Kelvim Escobar and Ryoto Igarashi effective set-up men for Francisco Rodriguez? Is a platoon of Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis really the move at first base? Is there a starting catcher aboard the 2010 train? The training staff. And that list of 2010 roster questions is hardly all-inclusive.

While Carlos Beltran’s knee remains a temporary question mark until he is again roaming Citi Field, the fact is the Mets are entering the 2010 season with a seemingly productive and reliable outfield for the first time in a long time. Beltran’s knee will heal and when it does, the Mets will have at least five months of the most productive outfield it has had in a long time.

I am not saying the Mets are saved because they have a good outfield. They are not. Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur certainly have their flaws but they are in or entering their prime (unlike the Moises Alou’s and Shawn Green’s of years past) and have put up gaudy numbers in past seasons. Gary Matthews Jr. is not a $50 million man but at $1.25 million/year, he is a steal as a fourth outfielder even in light of his advancing age and declining numbers. Isn’t Alex Cora making double that?

Lest we forget that Matthews has had his Endy moments while providing some offense as recently as a few years ago. And Angel Pagan has proven he is capable of performing like a starting outfielder (if he remains healthy of course). Even Frank Catalanotto, recently signed to a minor league contract and invited to spring training, appears to be a smart signing and could provide some reliable outfield depth. And Carlos Beltran will come back in May as Carlos Beltran.

This article is a merely a comment on a long trend in recent Met history and Omar Minaya’s recent decision to abandon the trend  of the “piecemeal” outfield or the “Beltran plus ‘anyone’” outfield. The abandoned philosophy was also attributable to the reigns of Steve Phillips and Jim McIllvane.  The philosophy essentially goes back to the transition from Frank Cashen & Darryl Strawberry to the likes of Vince Coleman and Bobby Bonilla.

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In the spring of 2009, Mets fans everywhere were excited about the possibility of Daniel Murphy being the Opening Day left fielder.  However, a routine fly ball dropped on April 12th led directly to a Mets loss and took all the excitement right out of the building.  So here we are, one year later and now the thought of Murphy being the everyday first baseman makes Mets fans cringe.

NEW YORK - AUGUST 07:  Daniel Murphy #28 of th...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I’m not sure why this is the case though.  It wasn’t Murphy’s fielding that had Mets fans cheering a month into his Major League debut.  It was the story of the home grown kid who plays hard, works harder, has a grinder’s mentality, and loves the game of baseball.

Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that if the Mets do not re-sign Carlos Delgado, they will bring back Fernando Tatis to platoon with Murphy at first base.

Mike Silva, of Ny Baseball Digest, suggest that with Tatis  failing in that role last season the Mets should look to Garko to fill the void this season. At MetsMerized Online, Joe D asks, who would be the better fit to platoon with Murphy, Tatis or Ryan Garko?  Not that I have anything against either of these players, and Joe does a good job of pointing out why both could fit the role, but what about giving Murphy the chance at the everyday job?

How could we as Mets fans have expected him to make strides of improvement when he had to learn two new positions in his first full season while also batting in every spot of the lineup?  Once Carlos Delgado was lost to injury, we leaned on a 24-year old kid as our source of power.  In 509 at-bats last season for Murphy, 254 were from the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup.  He logged only three at bats in those spots in 2008.

With all that, Murphy still managed to make some strides, hitting 38 doubles and striking out only 69 times.  In the months of August, September, and October, he hit .285 with 20 doubles in 203 at-bats.  As he became more familiar with first base, he turned into a decent first baseman.

The biggest knock I hear is that the Mets can’t have Murphy at first base because he doesn’t supply enough power.  In my opinion, home runs are the most overrated stat in baseball.  It’s not about how many home runs are hit, it’s when those home runs are hit that’s important.  Murphy hit .375 with RISP in 2008 and .290 with RISP in 2009.  He hit .345 with 21 RBI’s with RISP and two outs in 2009. Let’s hope with the addition of Jason Bay, we can leave the power supply up to him.

I am all for bringing in a right handed first baseman to this team, but does it have to be in a platoon role? Being a fan of Murphy’s, I think giving him the chance to play every day wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  My father always told me determination, hard work, and heart are the three key ingredients for success and Daniel Murphy possesses them all.

Mets fans aren’t the only ones confused by the acquisition of Gary Matthews Jr. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, executives around the league are just as perplexed:

“To sum up the view of Matthews within the game: He can’t hit for average, can’t hit for power, his defense ranks statistically among the worst outfielders in the majors and, to top it off, rival scouts have been reporting that in recent years he has been a clubhouse negative.”

Lest we forget, Matthews was also was linked to HGH following the 2006 season.

Proponents of the deal, or even those indifferent towards it, might argue that the Mets are only paying him a total of $2.5 million over the next two seasons.  However, Olney is quick to point out that even with the Angels picking up tab ($21.5 million), the Mets still overpaid:

“If Matthews were a free agent, he would be a player who might get a $500,000 non-guaranteed minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. And yet the Mets opted to commit $2.5 million and to trade a serviceable pitcher in Brian Stokes to get a player whose effectiveness might have ended years ago.”

Put simply, there is no way to rationalize this deal.  If acquiring a fourth or fifth outfielder was the goal all along, there were cheaper, more skilled alternatives on the market (Olney points out Randy Winn and former Mets fan favorite, Endy Chavez, as examples).

There are those who might say that Mets fans shouldn’t be making a big deal over a guy wh0 — if he’s as bad as everyone thinks — probably isn’t going to play.   If only it were that simple.

Like clockwork, GM Omar Minaya has taken a bad decision and managed to make things worse.  By publicly stating that Matthews Jr. will compete with Angel Pagan for the starting CF job in the spring, he’s fostered the belief — at least in the mind of the 35-year-old firebrand — that Matthews was signed to play an integral role.  If/when that doesn’t happen?  The team will have yet another disgruntled employee on their hands.

Just what the doctor ordered, right?  This is one instance where the Mets could’ve used a third opinion.

I think some of us Mets fans, myself included, can sometimes get into a habit of complaining for the sake of complaining. Trust me, there is plenty worth complaining about but in order to be taken seriously, you can’t jump all over the team for every single thing they do.

Mets Fan at Shea Stadium (Queens, New York)
Image by Luke Redmond via Flickr

Matthew Cerrone gets to the heart of the matter, which is that the Mets don’t stick to their plan, a plan that takes advantage of their uniquely configured stadium, building a team based upon pitching, speed and defense.

Somehow I don’t think Bengie Molina fits into that plan, but that didn’t stop the Mets from pursuing and being turned down by him. Not only were they misguided but they were embarrassed.

All that being said, the Mets didn’t get Molina, and fans were relieved. Nothing to complain about, right?

Ken Davidoff demonstrated just how out of touch the Mets front office seems to be when it comes to having a pulse on their fanbase:

“We’re just gonna get hammered for whatever we do right now,” one official said.

“Um, no, not for this one,” I said. “As far as I can tell, most of your fans are thrilled that you didn’t get Molina.”

Does any baseball team have a bigger team-fan disconnect than the Mets? It’s pretty darn big. It speaks, of course, to the profound lack of faith fans have, understandably, in the club’s front office.

The disconnect between the team and their fans. Definitely worth complaining about.

Not sticking to their stated plan? You bet it’s worth complaining about.

Dodging a bullet the size of Bengie Molina? Not worth complaining about.

Worth complaining about

The Mets have exactly two starting pitchers that you could comfortably say should be able to give you at least a dozen or more quality starts. After Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey, you have two guys who haven’t been able to get it together for two years: John Maine and Oliver Perez. Lord knows who the fifth starter should or will be, Jon Niese is still unproven but as a fifth starter, he’s not worth complaining about. What is worth complaining about is we are here on January 22 and the Mets still have not added a serious pitcher to this rotation, which arguably was their biggest need going into this off season.

We’ve beaten this issue to death here at Hot Foot, so I don’t have to explain to you what we think the Mets should do *cough* Ben Sheets *cough*, but I think it’s quite clear that this is worth complaining about and if it isn’t addressed properly before spring training, expect us to be complaining about it all season long.

Not worth complaining about

Gary Matthews Jr. being traded for a middle reliever. Sure, the deal makes no sense. Matthews is a poor fielder and several seasons away from being an above replacement level hitter, but giving up Brian Stokes is not going to make or break the Mets season. He’s due just 2 million dollars, which means he could be easily moved or released. It might be worth complaining about but it’s not worth the amount of complaining I’ve been following today on twitter. Molina would have been an albatross, this is a minor annoyance.

Worth complaining about

How embarrassing are our team executives? I can’t go a day without a fan from some other team ask me what was so-and-so thinking by opening his mouth? Playing out their dispute with Carlos Beltran in public? Fighting with a member of the press after one of your executives is caught taking his shirt off and challenging his players to a fight? Seriously? This is worth complaining about so much we’ve done a multi-part series here at Hot Foot to discuss it. Get your act together guys. Clean house and hire some people who don’t make us all look like idiots.

Not worth complaining about

I’ll get killed for this but here it goes: ticket prices. The Mets will charge exactly how much you are willing to pay for these tickets. If you keep buying the tickets and going to the games at the prices they’re charging, you have nothing to complain about. It sounds like the Mets are having trouble unloading these tickets, according to fans who are being shaken down by various ticket agents. Their behavior, worth complaining about. They can’t question our loyalty, but you have to question your own resolve if you’re complaining and still ponying up for it rather than take a stand and force them to correct the market.

Worth complaining about

The Mets don’t pay over slot in the draft. If you don’t want to go into each offseason trying to fill multiple holes in your roster, you need to start finding solutions in house. If the Mets developed more talent within their own farm system, they wouldn’t be scrambling to find a left fielder or fill two slots in their starting rotation, or at least they’d have more money saved up to sign someone with real impact. The state of the Mets minor league system and how they stock it is definitely worth complaining about.

So tell me if I’m right or if I’m wrong in the comments below, and go ahead, tell us what is and what isn’t worth complaining about.

Update 4:00PM - Matthew Cerrone posted audio of Omar Minaya’s comments regarding the deal.

Update 2:45PM – Omar Minaya told reporters “With or without Carlos Beltran, Gary Matthews Jr. just makes us better.”

He also said there would be an open competition between him and Angel Pagan for the starting CF job during spring training.

Gary Matthews Jr.'s 9th Inning Homer
Image by redheaded_pirate via Flickr

Update 12:30PM - Jon Heyman reports the Mets will trade relief pitcher Brian Stokes to the Angels in return for Matthews. The Angels will pay off all but $2 million dollars in his remaining $25 million dollar contract.

Jon Heyman reports the Mets will acquire Gary Matthews Jr. from the Angels. ESPN reports that the Angels are picking up a large portion of the last 2 years of Matthew’s 5-year, $50 million contract. Heyman told WFAN the Angels might be paying up to $20 million of the $24 million left on Matthew’s contract.

Mark Healy of Baseball Digest believes this is a precursor to a trade with the Reds and this trade will expedite that deal. Healy cites the fact the Reds have been asking for Pagan in a possible deal and adding Matthews makes him expendable.

Matthews, who is 35 years old, batted .250 last season, with 4 HR and 50 RBI. Matthews had knee surgery before the 2009 season.

ESPN writes

With Carlos Beltran likely not back to May, and concerns he may be out longer, the Mets wanted to have another center fielder on the roster. However, they likely would be better off letting Angel Pagan play as Matthews’ skills have declined rapidly the past few seasons.

From the Mets official press release announcing the deal:

METS ACQUIRE GARY MATTHEWS, JR. FROM THE ANGELS
The New York Mets today announced they have acquired outfielder Gary Matthews, Jr. and cash consideration from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in exchange for righthanded pitcher Brian Stokes.

Matthews, Jr., 35, hit .250 with four home runs and 50 RBI in 103 games last year, his third season with the Angels. Over his final 37 games, the switch-hitting Matthews, Jr. batted .289 and compiled a .410 on-base percentage for the Angels in their drive to the American League West title. He made a combined 80 starts at all three outfield positions in 2009, with the majority (46) coming in centerfield. His .358 (29-81) batting average with runners in scoring position led the team. Additionally, his .395 (17-43) average with runners in scoring position and two outs was sixth best in the majors.

I don’t really understand the purpose of this deal. Matthews is a poor outfielder with bad knees and a bad bat. The Mets didn’t give up much in Stokes, and only owe Matthews 2 million. If the Mets are looking for insurance with Beltran out, Matthews is not the guy to provide it. On top of all that, you really have to wonder why the Angels were so willing to pay $20 million dollars to swap Matthews for Stokes. Yes, the $20 million was a sunk cost they could not recover, it was essentially gone one way or another, but still makes you wonder.

With John Lackey signing to Boston, Randy Wolf off to Milwaukee, Jason Marquis in Washington, and Joel Pineiro inking a deal with Anaheim, the Mets were left standing on the platform watching the pitching train go by.

Mike Pelfrey

Image via

So who is left to sign for the Mets to fill their obvious pitching void?  It is no secret that most of the columnist on this site believe the Mets should sign Ben Sheets, including myself but, according to Buster Olney of ESPN, Jon Garland is the perfect fit for the Mets.

Garland has logged 200 plus innings in five of his last six seasons and started at least 32 games in his last eight seasons. There is no doubt that Garland is an innings eater, but at this point in his career Garland is more of a back end of the rotation guy.  He is not the number 2 starter the Mets desperately need.

What does this mean for the Mets, the time is now for Mike Pelfrey to step up! It’s time for a repeat of 2008 when Pelfrey had his brilliant 17 game stretch from June through August. It was during that time, that Pelfrey went 11-2 with a 3.0 era and 2 complete games.

Pelfrey will  be entering his third year as a full time starter and at times, over the last two seasons, has shown that  he can be dominating. If Jon Garland is going to be the Mets pitching  acquisition this winter, then Pelfrey must have a breakout season.

If the Mets have any hopes of winning  the Wild Card or the Division this season with a rotation of Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Garland, Oliver Perez and John Maine, then it will be up to Pelfrey to reach his full potential in 2010.

As the Hot Foot Father Anthony De Rosa opined the other day, Ben Sheets makes sense for the Mets. Similarly I believe Erik Bedard would be a good investment for the Mets, as would Chien-Ming Wang like I said at Hot Foot a few months ago.

The commonality between these three pitchers is that they are far from a sure thing – in fact all three of them are quite the opposite and bring varying degrees of risk and reward. Still though, the upside that comes with them outweighs the potential risk of sending money down the tube.

The reality is that players such as Jon Garland are a dime a dozen. Yes, signing him is a guarantee of 33 starts from a pitcher, but at what cost? Same goes for Jason Marquis, from whom the Mets smartly stayed away before he signed with the Nationals. As per Garland, yes it is 33 starts from one pitcher and such a thing surely sounds messianic to the injury-haunted Mets. At the same time, however, do you really want the off-season pitching acquisition who is supposed to slot in to solidify the rotation to have a career 4.42 ERA and limited upside?

The truth is that a pitcher with a 5.00 ERA can always be had. Whether it’s from the free agent scrap heap or triple-A, that guy is always available on the cheap. So, I for one, would rather take the risk of having 5-ERA-Joe-Shmo pitch fifteen games and have Sheets pitch the other 15 (the assumption being that he gets hurt) than have a Garland-esque guy pitch 30. And who knows, maybe Sheets/Bedard/Wang won’t get hurt!

Furthermore, the Mets have plenty of people who I would rather see starting games then a mediocre pitcher with no upside. Fernando Nieve was brilliant last year before he injured his quadriceps. Before Jon Niese injured his hamstring, he started to show some flashes of being a solid starter. I can’t really imagine these guys being much worse than the 4.50 ERA Garland brings to the table, but I could see them being considerably better.

If the Mets sign a mediocre starting pitcher with limited upside, it would scream of accepting consistency in the light of mediocrity, to the tune of 88 and 89 win seasons that the Mets had in 2007 and 2008, which was good enough for the consolation prize of getting to watch the playoffs from home. Paying for Garland when the Mets have better in-house options would be as silly as, I don’t know, say giving an expensive multi-year deal to an aging and quickly deteriorating second baseman. The Mets aren’t dumb enough to do that, right? Uh oh. . .  

Omir Santos is best suited as a backup in the major leagues, and not as a primary #1 on a team aspiring to achieve playoff success. With the news that Bengie Molina has resigned with the Giants, the Mets may now feel that it’s best to go with the platoon of Henry Blanco and  Santos. The problem is, both those guys are backup players.

Santos finished with an OBP under .300 last year and isn’t exactly a big power threat at the dish. Some may argue that it’s best the Mets spend the money they would have used on a new catcher on something they sorely need: starting pitcher. My answer to those guys is, why can’t they spend on both? Rod Barajas is still out there, as is Yorvit Torrealba. I would prefer Torrealba myself, but I’m not sure how open he’d be to coming to the Mets after they spurned him a few years back.

I say sign Ben Sheets, sign Joel Pineiro, and sign Torrealba. That way the pitching need is filled, as is the catching situation. If they sign Torrealba, that would probably leave Santos as the odd man out. Santos was a fine story for a few weeks in ‘09, but he does not have a future with the Mets, in my opinion.

I could do a whole post about various issues I have about the way the Mets market the team through their stadium, which really is my biggest issue when it comes to marketing, however Jesse’s letter to Dave Howard, Mets VP of Baseball Operations pretty much says it all.

Head over to Mets Police to read the whole thing.

Pete Gammons tells NESN the Red Sox had a deal in place in July but pulled it off the table because of concerns with Jason Bay’s knee.

“You had the same thing here with Jason Bay, when he agreed to the four-year, $60 million deal near the end of July and then the MRI showed some problems with both knees,” said Gammons. “Ownership wanted it to be two years and he had to prove that he was healthy to be able to make it four years, and he wouldn’t sign. This is no reflection on [Red Sox team physician Dr. Thomas] Gill and the Red Sox doctors, because they are probably the best in any sport. But the fact is, there becomes this disconnect where the player says, ‘Is he doing this for the owners or is he doing this because of my knee?’ That independent panel, I think, will almost certainly be a compromise that the owners will make.”

Here’s video courtesy of NESN with Gammons talking about Bay and the deal that fell apart.

 

Hat tip to Over The Monster for the report.

You have to hand it to the Mets. When they make a mess, they’re not content with cleaning it up and moving on, they prefer to turn mistakes into catastrophes. The most important purpose of public relations is to manage your image. When something goes wrong, it is the job of the folks in charge of public relations to minimize the impact of that mistake on how people view your company. Let’s take for example the Tony Bernazard firing.

It would have been enough for the Mets to simply say that Tony’s behavior was unacceptable and that they were moving on. However, instead of doing just that, they allowed Omar Minaya to take out his agenda against Adam Rubin in a press conference meant to diffuse the situation, making a bad situation into a complete disaster. It took not one, but two more press conferences for Omar to finally find the right words to put the matter behind everyone.

In the most recent case of public relations blunders, the Mets decided after hearing their star center fielder had medical procedure that they were not informed of beforehand to publicly attack that player in the press, rather than take care of it in-house.

What did they Mets think they could gain from approaching the situation the way they did. They not only proved that their players question the ability of their own medical staff to diagnose issues but they also showed that they’re not in control. They’ve further damaged their reputation with fans and free agents and made themselves look like fools in the process. Sometimes the best thing to do is to simply shut up.

There’s also the matter of flying Willie Randolph across the country and then deciding to fire him there instead of before he got on a plane.

The lack of input they sought while building their new ballpark leading fans to later complain that the park failed to incorporate any elements of the team’s history.

Ticket agents questioning fan loyalty for not renewing ticket plans, after they showed up to the tune of 92.7-percent capacity despite the fact they were coming to see a 92-loss team. It isn’t the fans who should need to prove their loyalty. They already have, enduring the last three seasons and still showing up in record numbers. How have the Mets repaid that loyalty? Insulting fans with bogus ticket discounts and rewarding loyal ticket package buyers with substandard seating locations, some even with obstructed seating that the team won’t even acknowledge, or lower the prices for.

The Mets public relations is a mess, and the only way to change that is to bring in new, fresh blood. Jay Horowitz is a sweet, lovable guy but it’s time to give someone else a chance to manage this team’s fragile image. Playing in the same city as the Yankees is tough enough without having to deal with your team being a punch line.

IMG_4124
Image by jacorbett70 via Flickr

Francisco Blavia of Lider en Deportes broke news on Christmas Eve that the Mets were close to signing free-agent relief pitcher Kelvim Escobar. Joel Sherman later confirmed those reports.

Today, Jerry Crasnick provides details of Escobar’s contract. He will receive $1.25 million guaranteed from the Mets and can earn an additional $125,000 if he makes the Opening Day roster.

There are up to $2 million in incentives based on games pitched and $1 million based on games finished.

Mark Healey at Baseball Digest tweets “Mets are in serious talks with Reds” for Bronson “Arroyo-plus, I’m not being told who the other player is”

Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse recently tweeted that the Reds were still trying to trade Aaron Harang, who is due to earn $12.5 million next season with an 2011 option for $12.7 million.

Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times hears that the Dodgers are discussing a deal for Harang with the Reds asking for one or two major league players.

Healey hears Ike Davis has not been included in part of the talks thus far, he stated that the Reds want young MLB or minors back, along the lines of RHP Bobby Parnell and RHP Brad Holt.

“If Mets just wanted (Bronson), the deal might have been done already,” said one baseball official familiar with the talks. “Mets are also discussing one, maybe two other players with Cincinnati.”

Healey has more about this in his post at Baseball Digest.

@RedReporter who blogs about the Cincinnati Reds at RedReporter.com tells me that the Reds needs are SS, LF, and starting pitcher.

Back on December 6th, I wrote the following as part of my Mets off season plan…

A solid top of the rotation starter instantly gives the Mets credibility. They can’t expect to be taken seriously going after the likes of Jon Garland and Jason Marquis. With the Reds seemingly trying to shed payroll, they could look to Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang, both who are a tier above the types of pitchers that the Mets seem to be aiming for this off season. The Marlins say they’re not dealing Josh Johnson this off season, but you have to figure they’ll be listening with Johnson nearing free agency and the Marlins penchant for fire sales. Outside of John Lackey, who will demand far more than he’s worth, there is very little free agent pitching talent available. The only way the Mets will be able to find that top of the rotation arm they need is through trade.