As the final day of the Winter Meetings comes to a close, the Mets fly back to New York much like the same team that arrived on Sunday.

Any and all dreams of blockbuster trades and big free agent signings slowly dissipate into the same pessimistic feelings we ended the season with.

There will be no press conferences to announce a major signing like last year when the Mets made so much noise. Instead we leave with a whimper, and the only noise you’ll hear is the sound of Omar’s taxi screeching to the airport.

You kind of had a strong indication that nothing significant would happen when Fred and Jeff Wilpon both decided to brush the Winter Meetings aside and remain in New York to take in some holiday shopping. (No not that Holliday.)

For Omar and the Mets, this Winter Meetings was more like shopping at Best Buy with your credit cards all maxed out and only twenty bucks in your pocket and some spare change in your car’s cup holder.

Despite our dashed hopes, the reality is that there were no big screen plasma TV’s for any of the other MLB teams either. The three biggest free agent prizes are still on the shelf collecting dust.

Yes, the Yankees made some noise with their three team trade, but with Granderson being the biggest name in that deal, I would hardly classify it as a blockbuster.

Omar Minaya holds out hope that the Mets will definitely get things done, and this afternoon he preached patience to Mets fans before heading back to his hotel room and packing up his belongings for the long trip home.

“We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do,” Minaya said. “We have a Plan A, we have a Plan B. We hope our Plan A, we can get that done. But you have to be ready for a Plan B and you have to be ready for a Plan C. We’re not just kind of in the dialog stage,” he added. “I think we have a good idea what some of those free agents are looking for, and I think it’s fair to say that the process is further ahead than it was when we got here.”

We reported earlier that the Mets have made at least two offers before departing, and another report puts the number at 3-4 offers. Either way, it’s become quite evident that this off season has become a very slow moving market.

Don’t let the silence of the last few days bring you down. Instead, let’s wait and see how things develop.

Nobody hates waiting more than I do. Like you I want everything yesterday. But as long as the players that I really want are still out there (Lackey, Bay, Holliday), the chance that they could be on the Mets Opening Day roster still exists.

So hang in there…