Dear Mr. Minaya,

Let me begin by saying I have always had the utmost respect for your work as a GM. Since 2005, you’ve brought this Mets team from mediocrity to a perennial competitor in the National League. With the signings of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran you made this team relevant again. That being said, I believe there is still much work to be done, especially this season.

I understand that right now the team has so many holes and injuries no one trade will “fix” this team. I am by no means saying we should make a panic move in order to keep pace with Phillies or the wild card leaders, but unless you believe the season is lost already, I believe the organization Must make a move in season before this year’s trading deadline.

It’s become quite obvious that this is a mediocre team. The product on the field is currently nothing more than a .500 ballclub. I know CitiField will continue to sell tickets regardless of whether you make a significant trade or not, but the fans attending these games deserve more for their hard earned money and wasted time.

As I mentioned earlier, I have the utmost respect for your work, especially during the offseason. I mean the trade for Johan Santana was brilliant and while he’s injured now, getting J.J. Putz for what we gave up was amazing. Getting Carlos Delgado for Mike Jacobs and Petit was huge. That being said, and I hope this doesn’t offend you, but your track record during the season has not been very good.

Every GM has at least one that got away but trading Cliff Lee, Brandon Philips and Grady Sizemore for Bartolon Colon and Tim Drew in July of 2002 will go down as one of the worst trades in basebally history. Also that month, trading Carl Pavano and Cliff Floyd for what was essentially Claudio Vargas didn’t work out. In somewhat of a panic move, trading Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez in 2006 worked out in the short run, with Ollie pitching a tremendous game 7 NLCS but long term I’d probably still want Nady on my team over Ollie.

I know sometimes the trades you don’t make are the best ones and as a fan I don’t know the inner workings of every deal or the pressures from ownership, etc but you have not made a siginificant move during the season for this Mets team which has so desperately needed one over the last few seasons. I’ll give you credit with the Jorge Julio for El Duque move in 2006 but as we all found out El Duque didn’t play a role down the stretch or into the post season. In 2007 our biggest moves during the season were acquiring Luis Castillo and Jeff Conine. Not horrible moves but not something that would have put the team over the top. Last season, coming off of one of the worst collapses in baseball history and with the bullpen falling apart our biggest move was sending Anderson Hernandez to the Nationals for Luis Ayala. Meanwhile Manny Ramirez was traded to the Dodgers and carried them to the post-season.

Again I know it’s easy to be a Monday morning GM but the point of this letter isn’t to point out trades that have gone wrong, it’s to point out trades that have not happened and to make a case that a significant trade must be made soon. Please, Mr. Minaya do not give up on this team and hope that the team will come back healthy and go on a run, please don’t hope the Phillies keep losing, I’m sure it’d be easier to throw our collective hands in the air and say this season wasn’t meant to be. And I am sure yourself and the entire organization will be given a pass, but in town like New York, where baseball is religion that logic is unacceptable.

Fernando Martinez and Jon Niese are great prospects and right now that’s all they are, great prospects. Former Met GM Steve Phillips, who I am not a fan of, actually said something that stuck with me and made sense, he said, “prospects get GM’s fired.” Sorry for the long letter, but I hope you read it all and do what every Met fan and even what your own manager Jerry Manuel has hinted at, please get us some help, fast before it’s too late!!

Pessimistically Yours,

Dominic Pinto