A Year Late, But Still...

delgado
Originally uploaded by dangunderman.

Last year, new Mets GM Omar Minaya had three free agent priorties - Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado, and in that order. Omar is baseball's first Latino GM, and he used his common heritage to woo the first two players on his list. When he got to Carlos D., he was all, "What do I care that we both speak Spanish? Gimme a good contract on a team that can win." Delgado went to the Marlins.

I had hoped that Delgado would've been the top priority last year. I feared that Pedro was past his prime (which he is, but he was still pretty sharp most of the year) and that Beltran was overrated (which he seems to be so far). I thought Delgado was the man to get.

Well, the Florida Marlins are having a fire sale (poor Joe Girardi is inheriting half the team he thought he was getting in his first year as manager), and the Mets finally got themselves Delgado. I like Carlos D. Not only is he a dangerous hitter, but he's a man of conviction, one that stays seated in the dugout if a stadium plays "God Bless America."

His reasons? He's against the war in Iraq and hates that the Navy performs military tests on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Good man.

I see only one drawback to this trade, and that's this: the Mets had to give up Mike Jacobs, whom some of you may remember from this little gem over at Titivil.

Mike had a scant 100 at-bats with the Mets, but he made himself a good first impression (well, second impression, if you include that gem from above), hitting over .300 with 11 home runs. This trade could very well work out spectacularly for both teams.

Or, if I'm feeling about the Mets how I usually do, they've just given up the future of their team for a protesting has-been.