FanHouse JeffWilpon

If you've been following the long, strange trip of the New York Mets this season, you know what a tangled, complicated world the front offices of Major League Baseball can be. You understand the frustrations, the egos, the outbursts, and the Machiavellian maneuvering. If you haven't been following the Mets, let me catch you up: "They are the Mets, only they got really bad sooner."

For further analysis, please click the following link and enjoy tonight's Dugout.

NEW YORK -- It's a pleasant spring day here -- the kind of day that makes us think/hope/pray/beg to somebody that this most miserable of winters might soon, finally, at long last be over. So in the spirit of spring, I went to a ballpark.

Specifically, I went to Citi Field, which is the new home of the New York Mets. (They've got two new ballparks set to open in New York in the next couple of weeks, in case you hadn't heard.) They didn't have a game at Citi Field today, but they did have the next best thing you can find at a ballpark -- food.

Oh boy do they have food at Citi Field.

Who would have ever thought Manny Ramirez would be unsigned this offseason as we rapidly approach February? He wore a Superman cape for the last two months of the season for the Dodgers, and here he is, unemployed on January 23. Even though David Wright lobbied for the them to go after the eccentric power-hitter earlier this week, it's not going to be the Mets who break down and sign Ramirez.

Jeff Wilpon -- COO of the Mets -- said that it's not ownership who isn't interested, but the Mets' general manager, Omar Minaya.

How determined is Omar Minaya to find a closer during the winter meetings this week in Las Vegas? So much so that the New York Daily News reports Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, who's needed to sign off on any deal, tagged along for the trip.

Minaya met with Francisco Rodriguez last night and is expected to meet with Brian Fuentes and Trevor Hoffman in the coming days. Kerry Wood is also a possibility; he's been linked with Detroit, but the Tigers may be scared by his price tag. Either way, the market for closers is deep, and Minaya expects to take advantage:

"I expect to leave with players," Minaya said. "I think there's a chance we can hopefully get something done here."

Minaya has prioritized pitching.

"I would like to resolve the closer first," Minaya said. "But if we can't come to terms and the starting pitcher is there, then we're going to have to do the starting pitcher."

There are several viable options on the trade market, as well, but Minaya indicated he'd rather sign a free agent than make a trade. It might cost him a couple of prospects if he signs a guy offered arbitration by his former team, but that'd be easier to swallow in the short-term than giving up a prospect close to being ready for the bigs.

Once Minaya finds his man, don't be surprised if the market quickly thins. The Mets have the deepest pockets of any team looking for ninth-inning help, and most free agents seem to be in a holding pattern until the Mets make their move. Once they do, the rest of the pieces will likely fall into place.

When the New York Mets drafted Aaron Heilman out of Notre Dame in the first round of the 2001 amatuer draft, they did so with the hope that Aaron would one day be a starter for the team. That day came in 2003 when Aaron made his MLB debut, and over the next three seasons he started 25 games for the Mets, and went 5-13 during that span.

Then in 2006 the team moved him to the bullpen after toying with his arm angle, and suddenly Heilman became a valuable asset to the Mets. Well, until he gave up that home run to Yadier Molina in the 2007 NLCS because last season Aaron posted a 5.21 ERA and walked a career-high 46 hitters in 76 innings. So now Aaron has had enough of life in the bullpen, and would like to return to the starting rotation. Of course, the problem with that is that the Mets don't really want to move him, so now Aaron wants to be traded.

"The object the entire time has never been to get out of New York," Heilman's agent Mark Rodgers told the Daily News. "The object is to get out of the bullpen. The most success he's ever had as a pitcher has been as a starting pitcher. He was drafted by the Mets as a starting pitcher."

A source with knowledge of the Mets' internal discussions suggested there's an organizational split about Heilman - with chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon wanting him to remain and other key front-office personnel favoring a trade.

The Johan Santana trade talks this offseason bordered on ridiculous. (Actually, they were just flat out insane.) The Yankees were interested, then they weren't interested, then Hank Steinbrenner said something, then the Mets were involved, then the Red Sox, then no one was involved, then everyone was involved. Yeah, it went something sort of like that.

So, you would expect the winning GM to feel pretty good about landing perhaps the top pitcher in the game, swooping in with the big boys and getting the deal done. Well, turns out Mets GM Omar Minaya got a nice little president from Mets COO Jeff Wilpon for his work. Some black Prada lace tips!

From the latest edition of Sports Illustrated via Larry Brown Sports:

[Omar] drove to Richards, a clothing store near [Minaya's home] in Greenwich, Conn. He ordered a pair of black Prada lace tips and had them shipped to Port St. Lucie. When Minaya arrived at spring training, the shoes were waiting for him.

I hope he tried doing windsprints in those things. If nothing else, they have nice ankle support. (Or so I've heard.)

Although fellow FanHouser Pat Lackey bemoaned the rest of the free agency crop last evening now that Alex Rodriguez is all but locked up with the Yankees, he forgot one man. This man stands for grit, hustle and integrity. This man is Mr. Scrappy. This man is David Eckstein.

And it looks like the Mets took Eckstein out to a nice dinner this week in hopes he'll pay second base for them next season.

How serious the 32-year-old Eckstein is about playing second base isn't clear, but he was interested enough about getting the Mets involved in the bidding to dine with Omar Minaya, Willie Randolph and other team executives in chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon's neighborhood.

[ ... ]

Aside from signing Eckstein or Castillo, the Mets could pursue a trade for Orlando Hudson, Arizona's second baseman and a three-time Gold Glove winner, who is a year away from free agency. But signing a free agent would allow the Mets to preserve their top prospects for a run at a front-line starting pitcher.

So yeah, it appears the Mets' first option might be to try and resign Luis Castillo, but they might have some stiff competition with the Astros for his services. And, as you can see from the above blockquote, they may also be working on a deal for Orlando Hudson.

But hey, do either of these guys have a World Series MVP trophy or the scrap and grit of Eckstein? I think not.

HT: BBTF.