KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -Toting his luggage, Omar Minaya strolled through the Ritz-Carlton lobby, hopped in a cab and prepared to board an airplane out of Florida.
The GM meetings may be over, but Minaya is ready to begin his offseason.
“We have a plan of attack,” the Mets GM said, “but we want to start implementing it.”
And the first seeds of that agenda were planted these last four days at the GM meetings. Minaya talked with teams, discussed players and informed agents of his interest in their free agents. Now the next step is taking that talk and turning it into action.
“I know we laid some groundwork,” Minaya said. “We have some offers out there. Teams have made us offers that we’re going to evaluate.”
The Mets will have a baseball operations meeting on Monday, and Minaya and his lieutenants will have plenty to discuss. On the trade front, the Mets have had multiple discussions with several teams, including with the Cubs about a deal for Sammy Sosa.
The trade would also involve sending Cliff Floyd to the Cubs, but the Mets would need to get money back from Chicago because of Sosa’s gargantuan contract; if traded, he would be owed a minumum of $39.5 million over the next two years.
Still, Minaya seems determined to make a splash, and although Sosa would be a controversial -and potentially disastrous -acquisition, it would be tough to deny he would at least constitute a splash. Stay tuned.
Minaya could also revisit his Texas talks in an attempt to land Alfonso Soriano. But the Mets are not planning on moving Jose Reyes, whom the Rangers covet.
Another potential snag in the pursuit of Soriano could be his unwillingness to play right field. The second baseman told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram yesterday that he is so adamant about staying at second, he would prefer to give up baseball than switch positions.
“I’m not going to give up my position,” Soriano said. “I’m going to play second base.”
Other possible trades to keep an eye on? There’s Anaheim with Jose Guillen, the Dodgers with a potential Shawn Green-for-Mike Piazza swap and the A’s with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.
On the free-agent front, the Mets have already told superagent Scott Boras that they’re interested in his two main outfield studs -Carlos Beltran and Magglio Ordonez. Minaya could also get involved in the hunt for Orlando Cabrera, especially if he decides to ultimately part with Reyes.
Amidst all the talk about other teams’ free agents, one thing the Mets also have to do is handle their most prominent free agent, Kris Benson. The Mets still want to re-sign the righthander and remain strong bets to do so, but Minaya’s comments yesterday indicated they’re not going to be held hostage in negotiations.
“We have told the agent that, ‘Look, we’re trying to get this done, but it gets to the point where if it doesn’t happen we’re just not going to wait,'” Minaya said. “We will be proactive in filling that slot. We would like to do it with Kris, but if we don’t do it with Kris, if somebody shows up there that’s at a number that we feel fits, then we’ll have to do what we have to do.”
Along those lines, Minaya has already told Carl Pavano’s agent that he may speak to him once the Mets know what their rotation status is. The Mets also will make an offer to provisional free agent Al Leiter before he likely hits the market when the Mets decline his option on Monday.
