I wrote on this site a month or two ago that I had a bad feeling that Omar Minaya would not come away with any prize free agents or make any significant trades to improve the Mets heading into 2010. I am closer to realizing that after reading this article on Mets.com about Minaya moving at his own pace during the winter meetings next week.
Sure, the free agent pool is sort of thin this year, but anything less than an all-out effort to make this club better than the floundering one of 2009 will be flat-out unacceptable. Yet, I’m pretty sure that’s how it will shake out. This article mentioned that Matt Holliday or Jason Bay may not fit well in Citi Field’s outfield, but I sure as hell would rather one of them in the lineup than the other guy they mentioned—Mike Cameron. But we’ll probably wind up with Cameron roaming our outfield again.
They go on to discuss some of the free agent pitchers like John Lackey, who apparently is asking for too much money. Of course he is…. the man has put his time in with the Angels and he’s been a steadying force on that rotation for years. I would have no problem overpaying for a guy like that, and the fact that the same guy who overpaid Ollie Perez last year is possibly balking at what Lackey is asking for is ludicrous. This article goes on to mention other possibilities like Randy Wolf and Jason Marquis and Joel Pineiro. One of those guys would be a decent #3 or #4 guy, but I wouldn’t even feel great if the Mets signed all three of them.
Folks, this is going to be a bad off-season for our team. I’m not sure if Minaya is waiting for the stronger 2011 free agent class, or if he’s just a lousy GM. Considering he may not last as our GM until 2011, I’m going with the latter.
