The Pirates don’t want to pay catcher Ryan Doumit anymore and the Mets have a need there. Doumit can also play 1B which is a huge hole for the Mets. The Pirates would probably just want someone like Nick Evans for him because they don’t like Brandon Moss at all in RF. So a straight up trade Doumit for Evans makes sense as the Pirates would probably take it.

The Mets are coming off a horrible season breaking in their new ballpark. They will be spending money like drunken sailors this winter to ensure that the losing stops right now. The Mets have 9 free agents going into the winter and they likely only have an interest in possibly bringing back two of them (Alex Cora and Fernando Tatis). With that in mind in appears that Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado, Marlon Anderson, Emil Brown, Gary Sheffield, J.J. Putz and Elmer Dessens will be looking for new places to earn paychecks. The #1 need for the Mets is a corner outfielder who can rip the baseball. Jason Bay and Matt Holliday are the players the Mets will be most interested in and they have the money to outbid teams for one of them. It they miss out on Bay and Holliday the Mets would likely consider guys like Vladimir Guerrero, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye and Marlon Byrd. The Mets will also be after a starting 1B and they like guys like Hank Blalock, Nick Johnson, Russell Branyan, Adam LaRoche and to a lesser extent Aubrey Huff. The Mets also have a need for a catcher with likely targets being Ramon Hernandez (if the Reds let him go), Rod Barajas, Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Kendall, Bengie Molina and Miguel Olivo. I tend to think that Bengie Molina would be the best fit of this bunch for the Mets. The Mets will also be likely after two starting pitchers and they will likely be going after pitchers on the top shelf. John Lackey will likely be the top target for the Mets as he is a horse that would serve as the Mets’ #2 starter behind Johan Santana. Jon Garland, Jason Marquis, Brad Penny, Joel Pineiro, Andy Pettitte, Erik Bedard, Jarrod Washburn, Doug Davis and Randy Wolf are the other pitchers the Mets will likely talk to. Middle relief from the right side was also a issue last season that hurt the team. David Weathers, Danys Baez, Rafael Betancourt (if the Rockies let him go), Octavio Dotel, LaTroy Hawkins, Bobby Howry, Brandon Lyon and Takashi Saito interest the Mets also. The Mets’ front office will make Mets’ fans very eager for Spring Training to arrive over the winter.

The Mets have released 40-year old lefty reliever Ken Takahashi. He pitched in 28 games (0 starts) for the Mets last season and he was 0-1 with a 2.96 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. Takahashi did have control issues walking 14 batters in only 27 1/3 innings and he was not lights out against lefty hitters. The Mets won’t miss Takahashi as they will likely sign or trade for a better lefty to replace him in the bullpen for the 2010 season.

32-year old righty reliever J.J. Putz has a $9 million dollar option for the 2010 season which the Mets will buy out for $1 million bucks. Putz had a rough year for the Mets as he was injured early on. He pitched in 29 games (0 starts) for the Mets this season and he is 1-4 with 2 saves, a 5.22 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. Putz didn’t want to be a set up man for Francisco Rodriguez anyway. If he is healthy he might be able to get another gig as a closer with a team like the Tampa Bay Rays. He has pitched in 337 games (0 starts) in his major league career and he is 23-19 with 103 saves, a 3.24 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP.

UPDATE: The Mets have declined J.J. Putz’ option for the 2010 season citing health concerns. He has not closed the door on returning to the Mets but he will likely try to land with a team that will let him compete for the closer’s job in 2010.

The Mets have acquired 27-year old OF/1B Chris Carter and 20-year old switch hitting 1B Eddie Lora from the Red Sox to complete the Billy Wagner trade. Carter will have a legit shot to win a starting job with the Mets next season if they don’t add a couple of corner outfielders. He played in 4 games for the Red Sox this season and he was 0 for 5 (.000 avg) with 1 RBI. He also played in 115 games in AAA-ball this season and he was 126 for 427 (.295 avg, .824 OPS) with 50 runs scored, 16 homers and 61 RBIs. Carter has now played in 13 games in his major league career and he is 6 for 23 (.261 avg, .569 OPS) with 5 runs scored and 4 RBIs. Eddie Lora played in 34 games in Rookie-ball this year and he was 22 of 99 (.222 avg, .701 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 3 homers and 7 RBIs. The fact that he whiffed 34 times this season shows that he has a lot of work to do before moving up in the minors. This was still a decent haul for Billy Wagner who did pitch well for the Red Sox. He pitched in 15 games for the Red Sox and he was 1-1 with a 1.98 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP.