Teams want the Mets prospects

Ben Shpigel at the NY Times, writes about Omar Minaya and how other teams keep calling him in hopes he will trade them some of the Mets premium talent:

The telephone calls keep coming, so Mets General Manager Omar Minaya keeps listening. But trading away premium talent for a modest starter is not going to happen. So Minaya has resisted all comers, and will take a chance that the enigmatic Jorge Sosa and seven other candidates will ultimately produce three capable starters for the last three spots in the rotation.

None of the three figures to be the elite pitcher the Mets anticipated they would land when the off-season began, so at some point Minaya may look to aim higher. Acquiring a top starter — someone, for instance, like Florida’s Dontrelle Willis — would probably cost the Mets two, or perhaps three, of their top prospects, a notion they have rebuffed in the past. But as Minaya said recently, after being outbid for Barry Zito, "If you have those kinds of premium prospects, those kinds of impact pitchers become available in trades."

When teams ask about the Mets’ top prospects, five players stand out: the right-handed starters Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber, and the outfielders Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gómez and Fernando Martínez. Having recently turned 24, Humber is the oldest and is six years older than Martínez, who, at 18, is the farthest from the major leagues, but might turn out to be the best.