(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Last night, before the Mets got blasted to smithereens by the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 8-0 loss, Mets GM Omar Minaya addressed the media, again, about the Mets current injury status and its affect on the club for the rest of the season and beyond.
"There is not a deal out there where I can bring in a player better than what we have," Minaya explained. "I am not going to find a shortstop better than Jose Reyes. I have to not only keep an eye on '09, but on '10, '11, and '12."
This is not exactly what Met fans want to hear from their GM, especially one who has never met a big name that he didn't like: Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, and Francisco Rodriguez to name a few of the star-quality players Minaya has brought to the organization over the past four years.
In a year when the Toronto Blue Jays are rumored to dangle their ace Roy Halladay in front of Minaya and every other GM in baseball in a proverbial carrot-and-stick game, Minaya's words were a concession of sorts for the 2009 season.
The Mets are on the precipice of an apocalypse. At 39-43, the Mets are staring into an uncertain future, lying in wait like Dante, only there is no Virgil to guide the Metropolitans through the depths of Hell then up through Purgatory to the paradise of a championship season.
Right now, paradise is lost on the Mets.
Jose Reyes had another cortisone injection in his hamstring; nobody knows when or if Reyes will return to the field in 2009.
Carlos Beltran avoided surgery on his banged-up right knee; instead, he will have to rest that bone bruise until it heels itself. Right now, Beltran is not expected back until the end of July.
What about Carlos Delgado? Well, what's the point. He's 37 years old and is rushing back from hip surgery, so don't expect last-July-and-August form from Delgado when and if he ever does return.
In a way, anyone who throws Minaya under the bus for not making a move is being unfair. The Mets are strapped by their NL-leading $143 million salary cap. Adding more salary during one of the worst economic climates since the Great Depression is not exactly a formula for success, especially with a little more than three months left to play on the season.
The depth of this 2009 roster is where Minaya has to be faulted.
He could have brought in Orlando Hudson and didn't.
He could have traded Scott Schoeneweis to Chicago for Jason Marquis and didn't.
He could have signed Derek Lowe; instead, he signed Oliver Perez.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda, to quote Bill Murray from Meatballs, "It just doesn't matter."
Minaya received a contract extension last October that will keep him in the Mets organization through 2012, and unless Fred Wilpon turns into George Steinbrenner, Minaya is not going anywhere.
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