Omar couldn't find match for Manny, Bay
Just finished up the Mets' conference call with GM Omar Minaya and he did have a few interesting revelations about the final hours before today's 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline.
-- Minaya said he spoke with Red Sox GM Theo Epstein about Manny Ramirez, but the talks never escalated to anything serious. Bottom line: the Mets couldn't provide Boston with the run-producing outfielder the Sox needed to try and fill the void left by Manny's departure. Bay is hardly a replacement for Manny. But evidently he was better than what Minaya was prepared to offer.
"I won’t say I was surpised because I knew he was in the market," Minaya said of the Ramirez deal. "But I just thought, in the end, they just really wanted to move him. They got Jason Bay so they got a guy that’s going to help them right away. We couldn’t give them a guy that was going to help them right away."
-- Minaya also discussed Bay with the Pirates. But again, the prices in young talent, such as Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Eddie Kunz and Robert Parnell, were just too high for Minaya.
"We did talk to them a little bit about that," Minaya said. "But they did say that they were looking very premium-plus prospects."
-- As for the uncertainty of going forward with the shaky status of John Maine (rotator cuff strain), Ryan Church (post-concussion symptoms) and Pedro Martinez (assorted ailments), Minaya sounded like he was keeping his fingers crossed -- and hoping that help would make it through the waiver wire.
"I just think that we didn’t do something because you can’t force trades," Minaya said. "If the fit is not there, you just can’t force it. We hope these guys are going to be OK. We don’t know that. But the fact of the matter is there was no starters out there on the marketplace there that were available really. And the position players that were available, some of them we didn’t particularly care for. With some, we did like them, but they were rentals and we were not going to trade two of our premium prospects or more for rental players."
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Comments (1)
I think standing pat here was the way to go. As maddening as the Mets bullpen is, Luis Ayala was not the answer. I'd rather see what Kunz can do.
The Mets have a little bit of a soft spot in their schedule while the Phillies have a West Coast trip and a series in Wrigley before they meet the Mets on August 24th. Mets have to take advantage.