The Mets today bought a whole new battery at the Winter Meetings in Orlando: Catcher Ronny Paulino and reliever D.J. Carrasco, both nontendered, and former Pirates. Carrasco is a late bloomer and veteran of four big-league clubs with a goofy delivery and even goofier uni number — 77 with both the Pirates and Diamondbacks. A cursory check turned up no great stories about this odd choice, though it should be noted he was born in 1977 and Pittsburgh, where he began to wear those digits, has a reputation for issuing unusually high numbers to some players. The Mets have never had a 77 despite my plea that they give it to Kazuo Matsui in 2004, which could have changed everything.
Paulino came up with the Pirates wearing No. 56 then 26, and spent the last two seasons wearing No. 29 in Florida. He was busted last summer for PED use and seems to have gotten fat since he was lusted after by a young Omar Minaya back in the oughts, but on the plus side he’d appear a decent selection to platoon with Josh Thole.
The Mets this week also invited infielder Russ Adams, catcher Dusty Ryan, and pitcher Michael O’Connor to camp with minor league deals, and appear to be positioned for a pick or two during the Rule 5 draft. There’s stil a chance — and in my opinion, a good argument — to try and move Carlos Beltran before we endure another season of uncertainty in the outfield, but such a deal seems like a longshot. Reports also suggest the Mets will try and score a starting pitcher — if not this week, then when the unsigned guys get anxious in January — but so far the New Brass seems not to have misled anyone as to their modest goals for the winter.
In the meantime it appears that the Mets careers of Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Chris Carter and Henry Blanco are over. We hope maybe Felicano comes back sometime and tries on a fourth uni number — he was 55, 39 and 25 on his way to becoming an unlikely long-tenured and really quite excellent Met. But I don’t much believe in sustainability from short relievers and approve almost whatever churning gets done year to year.
Terry Collins pretty much spoiled the idea of returning to wear No. 1 once he invoked the name of Jim Leland, but it doesn’t mean Luis Castillo is in the clear yet. Newspapers last week were speculating that Mookie Wilson would be named to fill the vacant first-base coaching job — and maintain the proper quota of 1986 laborers in continuing employ with the Mets as stipulated in a secret contract somewhere.
Darryl you might know has a new 
As a friend said, Terry Collins may have been fifth on my list of the final four candidates to become the next Mets manager but now that he is, I guess we owe him a shot. He’s got some admirers among the bright minds of the Mets front office, he was a finalist the last time they held these interviews, and his teams in two previous stops have performed pretty well if not ended that way. We’ll wait for the press conference Tuesday to comfirm it, but I’d expect they have him appear in the 
Isn’t just like the Mets that they needed to be the dumbest team in baseball for five years before they realized they might need to be the smartest? They’re like George Costanza, author of the above title line, upon the realization that his own instincts had become so untrustworthy he needed to openly defy them by doing just the opposite of what they favored. The Mets have a long history of such behavior, whether it’s sitting on their hands whille the bullpen burned to the ground in 2008 then spending the offseason stuffing the roster with high-profile relievers; responding criticism of moves like the Scott Kazmir trade by aggressively promoting 19-year-old hard throwers to the majors; answering their near-complete tone deafness to the will of fans with regards to the new park by
Samuels had served as Met equipment manager for 27 years; needless to say he’s a figure whose influence on my little project here commands a good deal of respect. If you wanted to know why this player was issued that number; or why that other guy changed numbers; or what the deal was with those revolting black unis, he was the man to talk to. Only, he didn’t talk much: Through Mets officials, Charlie declined numerous requests over the years to be interviewed for this site and for the Mets By The Numbers 
