On the Mets beat

Apprently the Mets were impressed by Guillermo Mota's mea culpa last month after it was revealed that he violated MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program. So much so, in fact, that they brought him back with a two-year, $5 million contract that was finalized Thursday -- even though Mota will be suspended for the first 50 games next season.

"Guillermo took responsibility for his actions and expressed extreme remorse for his mistake,” GM Omar Minaya said in a statement. “He handled himself in a stand-up manner.”

What do you think? Did Mota deserve another chance?

GM Omar Minaya checked out of the Dolphin Hotel minutes ago, headed for the Dominican Republic to visit with the team's baseball academy there. Minaya completed one of the few trades here at this week's winter meetings -- sending Brian Bannister to the Royals for hard-throwing reliever Ambiorix Burgos. But he also mentined on the way out the door that he was deep into discussions with the White Sox before they traded Freddy Garcia to the Phillies late Wednesday night.

"We talked to them for a while," Minaya said. "We just couldn't get it done. We couldn't match up the prospects. [GM] Ken [Williams] said he wanted pitching."

The Phillies surrendered righthander Gavin Floyd and minor-league pitcher Gio Gonzalez for Garcia. But Minaya was reluctant to part with any of his big chips -- Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber -- with Garcia headed for free agency after this season.

"These guys that are one year guys,"Minaya said, "you want to get guys you can control."

Risky move by the Mets allowing David Wright to be the Santa Claus at this year's holiday party for schoolkids at Shea. The last three, respectively, were Kris Benson, Mike Cameron and John Franco. All disappeared shortly afterward, and Cameron suffered that career-threatening collision the very next season. Of course, Wright won't be going anywhere. He did just sign a six-year, $55-million contract last August. But for those superstitious types out there, it's a little ominous.

Sitting down to lunch minutes ago with the beat reporters, manager Willie Randolph announced that Howard Johnson will be his new first-base coach. Randolph added that Johnson will specialize in baserunning and the outfield. Randolph said he also considered Gary Carter, Bobby Meacham, Rickey Henderson and Gerald Williams.

Following lunch, Johnson spoke to reporters via a conference call.

"It's a load off my shoulders," a thrilled Johnson said. "The minor leagues are where players go to learn and get better and the same can be said for coaches. You have to pay your dues."

The Mets and Royals made the Brian Bannister-Ambiorix Burgos swap official with an impromptu news conference this morning. The two GMs didn't even stand at the podium -- KC's Dayton Moore held court just inside the media room while Omar Minaya addressed reporters in the hallway a few minutes later. Incredibly, this relatively minor swap was the first trade of the winter meetings.

Minaya said the two teams talked about a possible trade Tuesday morning and the deal was pretty much agreed upon by noon. Once again, Minaya stressed the need to stockpile young arms for the bullpen, and Burgos defintely fits that profile. Minaya said the Mets' scouting reports indicated that Burgos' fastball is in the 95-100 mph range, and occasionally cracks the century mark.

"He's young kid and we see upside," Minaya said. "He's a power arm and it's tough for me to pass on power arms."

Burgos had 18 saves last season for the Royals, but also suffered 12 blown chances, but Minaya suggested that's just part of the learning curve for a young pitcher. "He's 22 years old," Minaya said. "There are guys coming out of college that are 22."

Minaya also was asked about missing out on Julio Lugo, who passed on teh Mets to accept a four-year, $32-million with the Red Sox late Tuesday night.

"Julio wanted to come to New York and I've been after Julio for a while," Minaya said. "I would have liked to see Juio and Jose [Reyes] together, but I can understand. I'm very happy with [Jose] Valentin at second base. Julio would give us a different look, but I like the look of 20 home runs, too."

With Lugo landing in Boston, Minaya also declared the Mets have no plans to pursue another second baseman.

Below is the complete press release from the Mets on the Bannister-Burgos deal:

METS ACQUIRE AMBIORIX BURGOS

The New York Mets announced today that they have acquired righthanded pitcher Ambiorix Burgos in exchange for righthanded pitcher Brian Bannister.

Ambiorix, 22, spent the entire 2006 campaign in the majors with Kansas City. In 68 games, one start, he posted a 4-5 record with a 5.52 ERA and 18 saves. In 73.1 innings, he gave up 83 hits, 49 runs, 45 earned, with 37 walks and 72 strikeouts.

Burgos made his first big league start, September 30th at Detroit. He allowed one earned run over his last 8.2 innings (seven appearances). He was the Royals Pitcher of the Month for April and in 11 July games he allowed two earned runs (13.2 innings). The Royals were 35-33 in games that Ambiorix pitched.

The 6-3, 235-pound Burgos made his major league debut in 2005 with the Royals. He was 3-5 with a 3.98 ERA with two saves in 59 games. In 63.1 innings, he allowed 60 hits, 29 runs, 28 earned, with 31 walks and 65 strikeouts. Ambiorix has compiled 137 strikeouts over the last two seasons, most by any Royals relief pitcher.

The Nagua, Dominican Republic native was signed by the Royals as a non-drafted free agent as a 16-year old on November 14, 2000.

Bannister, 25, began this season in the Mets starting rotation, making five starts in April before being placed on the Disabled List on April 28th with a strained right hamstring. Brian rejoined the Mets in August and finished the year 2-1 with a 4.26 ERA in eight games, six starts. In 38.0 innings, he surrendered 34 hits, 18 runs, earned, with 22 walks and 19 strikeouts.

Willie Randolph spoke to reporters here at the winter meetings this afternoon on a variety of topics, everything from the Mets' moves so far to the maturation of Lastings Milledge.

He also expressed his frustration over finishing second to Joe Girardi in the NL Manager of the Year balloting. Here's what he had to say about that:

Q. How disappointed are you that you didn't get Manager of the Year? Was there some personal disappointment for you based on the year that you guys had?

RANDOLPH: Yeah, from an organization, team standpoint, yeah, it was disappointing because I thought we were the best.I thought we deserved that.

Q. Do you think it's underestimated a little bit the kind of job a guy can do? You guys did make it to the last game of the NLCS. Do you think that worked against you because people assumed you had a great team?

RANDOLPH: I'm just totally dumbfounded on how it works obviously. All I can do is continue to stay focused on getting this teamto where we need to go, and that's really all I can do. You've known me a long time, and I can only
try to control things I can control. If we start trying to figure out what the criteria is and why people vote for what they vote for and what they see, that's not my concern.

Like I said, I'm proud of where we've come in a short period of time, and again, these types of awards I would accept as a team anyway. The coaches, players, the organization, it's a collective thing. I feel like we deserved it. It would have been nice, but having said that, we came one hit away from the World Series, and that's really what my main concern is. That's not really who I am or define what I've done. It's always nice to kind of get those props, because it's a way you can talk about what the award means to me.

I was looking forward to giving it up to the Buck O'Neals and the Jackie Robinsons and the Omar Minayas and those type of people, and I wanted to use that platform as a way to talk about that. I can still do it, I guess (laughter), but it would have been nice to stand up in front of a lot of people and give it up to people that deserve that kind of praise. But I'll just have to maybe do it in the future sometime. Again, like I said, being where we are right now is way more important than any type of personal -- any type of award.

You can check out the full transcript of his comments right here.

Headed out to speak with GM Omar MInaya in a few minutes. Check back for an update from that briefing. Otherwise, it's been a painfully slow day here at the Dolphin.

Looks like the Mets officially put themselves in the race for Barry Zito last night when GM Omar Minaya met with Zito's agent, Scott Boras. With the Rangers apparently willing to go to six years and $102 million for the free-agent lefthander, should Minaya play into Boras' hands and get into a bidding war? Is it that crucial for the Mets to land Zito? Or would it be better to pull off a trade for one of the White Sox starters -- Freddy Garcia or Javier Vazquez -- at the cost of Mike Pelfrey or Philip Humber?

Just something to ponder on the morning of Day 2 here at the winter meetings ...

Just for the record, Omar Minaya finally has given up his two-year quest for Manny Ramirez. Asked today about resisting the urge to get involved in the trade discussions for the disgruntled Red Sox slugger, Minaya laughed.

“I’m not commenting on players on other clubs,” Minaya said, “but I’ve been down that road. I’m very happy with Moises [Alou] in leftfield.”

The Mets GM also believes that Ramirez will not be traded this offseason.

With the Rangers reportedly willing to go to six years and $102-million for Barry Zito, Mets GM Omar Minaya said an hour ago that he plans to have a sit-down meeting with Zito's agent, Scott Boras, perhaps as early as tonight. The Mets spent this afternoon going over a "wish-list" of starting pitchers in Minaya's suite, but the GM said it was "too early" to estimate if anything would get done this week.

The lobby of the Dolphin Hotel -- the HQ of baseball's winter meetings -- was buzzing late into the night on Sunday, but this morning marks the official start of the festivities. I'll try to post news as it happens here, only with the built-in delay it takes to make it to my laptop. Stay tuned ...

(My colleague Jim Baumbach supplied an aerial view of the hotel on his blog, so here's a Mets Mickey for some local flavor.)