New York Mets relying on hope not trades

Addressing the media, nowadays, Omar Minaya looks more the part of a man in witness protection flanked by media relations executives. The mysterious men follow his moves and words with great caution going so far to use cues and hand gestures as signals to the New York Mets GM.

And Friday, Omar Minaya seemed to take the same cautious stance in regards to the trade deadline. In fact, the injury riddled Mets were the only team in the NL East not to make a move in the final days leading up to the deadline.

Florida received Nick Johnson from Washington, Atlanta became re-acquainted with Adam Laroche from Boston, and the defending World Champion Phillies may have made the biggest splash and sown up the division with the acquisition of Cliff Lee.

Entourage and media storms aside, Minaya proclaims that the lack of moves should not be equated to lack of effort. He claims to have had been working on all fronts and that some big names such as Victor Martinez were dangling out there.

It was only his refusal to surrender the team’s prized young talents—Jonathan Neise, Bobby Parnell, Jenrry Mejia, Brad Holt, or Ike Davis—that made Friday night a Citi seem like wait and see again.

“As a general manager, I’ve been six games out before, and it’s kind of hard to go out and make a trade,” said Minaya. “And you guys know our situation. The situation is not one player. Our situation is a couple players.”

He’s right in some regards. The one thing forgotten by the shrunken attention spans in this vast, endless market is the trade that brought Omar Minaya here in the first place: July 30, 2004 Scott Kazmir and minor league pitcher Jesolo Diaz for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato.

In fact, it’s only two days removed from the five-year anniversary of the trade that would lead to the demotion of then-GM Jim Duquette within the organization.

For now, the Mets seem content with the infusion of talent waiting to plucked off the DL. However, the Mets are no closer to knowing when and if any of these players will be healthy. Beltran admits he won’t be 100% at any point this season, if ever. Delgado is recovering from hip surgery and Jose Reyes still won’t run the bases at Port St.Lucie.

So instead of acquiring help, the Mets will continue to rely on hope. It hasn’t worked thus far but has anything else?

Should the Mets have tried to pull some smaller moves similiar to the Jeff Franceour deal?

No one knows that answer—not even Omar Minaya and the rest of the New York Mets.