The Mets today announced they would acquire slugging first baseman
Carlos Delgado and 7 million U.S. Dollars from the Marlins, giving up promising
young hitter Mike Jacobs 27 and alleged phenom pitcher
Yusmeiro Petit in return. That this is a dynamite deal for the Mets should be
obvious: Delgado fills the need for another threatening bat in the lineup
and they didn’t need to cough up Lastings Milledge to get him. This
of course isn’t the first time the Mets have picked up luxury goods on
the cheap in a Marlin liquidation: The 1998 sell-off produced
Dennis Cook 27, Al Leiter 22 and Mike Piazza 31, all key players in the last
respectable Met era.

Considering the strenous attempt to land Delgado last off-season, we expect the Mets will provide Delgado with all the comforts he deems necessary, which means
Kaz Matsui 25 might find a new jersey hanging in his locker this spring
(presuming it says “Mets” on the front, that is). We argued back in ’03
that Matsui should have been issued 77 and would still like to see it.

Speaking of Marlin giveaways, the Mets quietly provided X-Marlin lefty reliever
Matt Perisho with a minor league contract and invite to Spring Training.
Perisho wore 46 with the Marlins last season.