They just wrapped up the short press conference at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, where Omar Minaya, Mark Shapiro (Indians), and Jack Zduriencik (Mariners) addressed the media.
Zduriencik, led things off and basically complimented Omar and revealed this was the first trade he ever made.
Omar, took the mic next and after a bunch of thanks to go around for everyone, basically said the trade was an old-fashioned trade that took a while to develop, and then it really picked up steam.
He mentioned how New Yorkers were constantly getting on him to fix the team, particularly the bullpen.
That was pretty much it.
The Mets gave up a ton. This was by no means a steal for the Mets. But, the important thing to note is that they gave up NO MAJOR pieces of the puzzle.
They gave up Mike Carp, and just last week I wrote that he didn’t have a future with the Mets.
They gave up Joe Smith, but got another right handed side armer with more experience back in Sean Green.
They gave up Endy Chavez who basically was a 5th outfielder, and they got a 5th outfielder in return with Jeremy Reed who doesn’t field as well, but is a better hitter.
Of course they gave up Aaron Heilman and replaced him with J.J. Putz.
The Mets also gave up two other minor leaguers, but none were highly regarded.
The bottom line is that we made a significant upgrade to the bullpen, and we didn’t have to trade Dan Murphy, Jon Niese, or Bobby Parnell to do it.
