Jeff Wilpon shot down any notion that the Mets were for sale in light of recent news that his father’s business, Sterling Equities, lost several hundred million dollars. They were scammed by Bernard Madoff, a 70-year-old investor that, according to the story, may’ve stolen $50 billion total.

Here’s the story than ran on ESPN from the AP. If you don’t have time to read it all, basically it includes the younger Wilpon saying the Mets, SNY and Citi Field will not be affected.

And the notion that the Mets are for sale? Forget it.

(The team is) uncategorically, totally, completely not for sale. … Not a piece of it, not a part of it, none of it.

Everyone will believe them if the Mets continue to act aggressively this offseason. If not, fans may at least raise the question. After all, they are moving into a new stadium and prices aren’t exactly going to go down.

I figured everyone would enjoy this photo taken at today’s presser by the AP. When you think about it, it displays the very confidence the Mets hope can close down ninth innings — and the very confidence they hope to get included in the $37 million tab.

There’s something to be said about having a nickname so universal you can have it monogrammed on all your dress shirts. One guy I remember who displayed monogrammed shirts was Chris Paul before he was drafted by the Hornets. Inside Stuff did a piece on Paul and you could tell he was kind of proud about the shirts, in the same way a rookie would find his first bobble head doll as a sign that he had arrived.

Of course, CP3 is an excellent nickname, one of the best in sports. But I’m not sure it trumps K-Rod, who had pitched just a handful of games before he adopted the name in Anaheim in 2002. Also, K-Rod isn’t showing off. It’s really who he has become. Can you think of anyone else so often called by his nickname around baseball? Maybe A-Rod, but that’s about it.

As you know, the Mets held their holiday party today at the Citi building in Long Island City. I guess they wanted to introduce K-Rod to some of the City’s finer nighttime establishments…if you’ve been to LIC, you know what I mean…

Anyway, Omar Minaya spoke early this morning with Boomer and Carton on WFAN. (Carton is a New Rochelle grad, by the way.) You can listen to Minaya’s interview here on the FAN website.

Minaya reiterated that the Mets now have their bullpen, but they must continue to pursue starting pitching. He said he likes Jon Niese and Bobby Parnell, although I think we’d all be shocked if those guys weren’t forced to beat out more experienced competition for a slot in the rotation.

Later in the morning, K-Rod tried on his new No. 75 jersey, flashing his smile, the one that bears a striking resemblence to that of Carlos Beltran.

K-Rod later spoke to reporters at the holiday party. He is gung-ho on New York. You can see audio/video of the press conference here, on the SNY website. K-Rod also answered questions one-on-one with SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt.

One of our columnists, Sam Borden, will have a piece on K-Rod in the morning in the paper and on LoHud.com so you should all be sure to check it out.

The Mets will roll out their new arms today and tomorrow, as both Francisco Rodriguez (today) and J.J. Putz (tomorrow) will meet the media.

Rodriguez will highlight a list of attendees at the club’s holiday party for local kids. The party will be held at the Citi building in Long Island City.

Other attendees include Mike Pelfrey, John Maine and Jerry Manuel. Pelfrey will play Santa Claus, which, no matter what he looks like, should still prove significantly less bizarre than seeing him dressed in a one-piece swimsuit.

Anyway, K-Rod will hold a press conference around 10:45 a.m. The Q and A will be broadcast live on SNY and WFAN, so you can check it out there. It’ll also be interesting to hear about how Maine’s shoulder feels.

After the holiday party, the Mets won’t be done. Putz will meet with reporters on Thursday at Citi Field. Obviously, he’s made a few comments about pitching the eighth inning, but I’m curious to hear him expound upon what he’s already said. Plus, apparently Putz is an engaging guy, but I don’t think many fans in New York know anything about him.

A noontime conference call with Francisco Rodriguez just ended a few minutes ago. As you’d imagine, K-Rod has embraced the many complexities of his new baseball home.

The former Angels closer said he is not worried about his velocity. In fact, he expects it to increase next season. He believes it dipped last season because he refined his mechanics and worked on a new pitch, his changeup, and that to keep himself in check he couldn’t let loose.

There were many good nuggets from the call. K-Rod seems like an intelligent, thoughtful guy who wants to prove himself in New York.

UPDATE, 1:47 p.m.: The whole transcript is up. It’s long, so you can find it in its entirety after the jump…

Can you address the concerns that your velocity dipped last season?
For me it’s not a concern. I think I’m going to be fine this year. For some reason people are always looking at velocity and not worrying about what I have done. I feel pretty comfortable with it. I’m working so hard this offseason to make sure I come back to spring training and prove my velocity is back. It’s not something that I’m really concerned about right now. I think I’ll be all right.

One of the things Omar said was that you’d be worried about who would get the ball. What do you think about J.J. Putz?
First of all, I’m really happy with the acquisition of J.J. He’s a tremendous guy and a tremendous professional. Hopefully, we can work together and get our chemistry going. From what I understand right now, he’s going to be the setup guy. He’s the one who’s going to get the ball to me. I think that 1-2 punch I really like our odds. When we get back to spring training we have to sit together and establish our communication and work together. We’re not selfish guys. We don’t look at numbers. We have one goal: To get to the promised land. Read more of this entry »

Omar Minaya dealt another member of the Mets tattered bullpen. This time it was Scott Schoeneweis, who was sent to Arizona for right-handed reliever Connor Robertson, the older brother of Yankee pitcher Dave Robertson.

Robertson hasn’t had a lot of success in the pros (he’s only tossed seven innings), but he has shown great ability as a strikeout guy in the minors. We’ll see what kind of impact he has here.

This is the release put out by the club:

METS ACQUIRE RHP CONNOR ROBERTSON FROM ARIZONA

FLUSHING, N.Y., December 12, 2008 – The New York Mets tonight acquired righthanded relief pitcher Connor Robertson from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for lefthanded pitcher Scott Schoeneweis and cash considerations.

Robertson, 27, was 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in nine games with Arizona this past season. In 7.0 innings, he allowed eight hits, four runs, earned, with two walks and two strikeouts. In addition, the 6-2, 220-pounder went 7-4 with a 5.02 ERA in 47 contests with Tucson (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League. In 71.2 innings, he surrendered 69 hits, 45 runs, 40 earned, with 30 walks and 72 strikeouts.

“We’re happy to acquire Connor Robertson,” said Mets General Manager Omar Minaya. “He has a solid minor league track record and he’s a good addition to our system.”

Robertson is 29-13 with 24 saves a 2.82 ERA in 217 career minor league games. In 305.0 innings, he’s allowed 268 hits, 136 runs, 113 earned, with 123 walks and 382 strikeouts.

He also appeared in three games in relief with the Oakland A’s in 2007. Robertson was included along with righthanded pitcher Dan Haren in Oakland’s trade with Arizona on December 14, 2007.

Schoeneweis, 35, was 2-6 with a 3.34 ERA in 73 games for the Mets in 2008. In 56.2 innings, he allowed 55 hits, 23 runs, 21 earned, with 23 walks and 34 strikeouts.

The Mets announced their 2009 AAA Buffalo coaching staff today. They named Ken Oberkfell the manager. He, of course, joined the big league staff after Willie Randolph was fired last season.

Here’s the release sent out by the club:

World Series Champion enters 13^th Season as Minor League Manager

Bones, Natera Join Oberkfell on Bisons Coaching Staff

The Buffalo Bisons are pleased to announce that the New York Mets have selected Ken Oberkfell as the Herd’s manager for the 2009 season. The 16-year major league veteran and World Series Champion is the Bisons’ 15^th manager in the team’s Modern Era. Read more of this entry »

Francisco Rodriguez was supposed to chat with reporters at 3:30 this afternoon but the call was canceled. It has yet to be rescheduled.

A Mets official said K-Rod was scheduled to fly home to Venezuela from New York today but his flight was delayed substantially and fouled up the timing.

A new question has been posed: Do you like last night’s trade for J.J. Putz/Jeremy Reed/Sean Green or did the Mets give up too much?

The agent for J.J. Putz had originally said his client wanted to be a closer. Period. But Putz appears to have handled the news well.

Here’s The Seattle Times’ Mariners blog, which caught up with Putz after the trade.

Let’s take a quick look at the four newest Mets —

Francisco Rodriguez, RHP, closer
— The deal: three years, $37 million, agreed upon Tuesday. Here’s the story about the move.
— Age: 26
— Height: 6-0
— Weight: 175
— Fun fact: Will wear No. 75.
— Here are K-Rod’s career stats.
— Here’s a post I made last month about K-Rod’s short and long-term viability as a closer.
— The verdict: Even though every word I wrote last month is true, the Mets scored K-Rod at a far cheaper price, about half as much as his agent Paul Kinzer wanted originally ($70-75 million) and 60 percent shorter (three years rather than five). The money and the reasonable length of the deal makes the K-Rod signing much more palatable, even if he has shown signs of diminishing returns.

J.J. Putz, RHP, setup man
— The deal: acquired in a 12-player deal with Seattle and Cleveland late Wed. night.
— Age: 31
— Height: 6-5
— Weight: 220
— Fun fact: Eddie Guardado taught Putz the splitter in the spring of 2006. A few weeks into the season Putz took Guardado’s job as the M’s closer.
— Here are Putz’s career stats.
— Here’s an interesting story by SI’s Tom Verducci about the best relief seasons of all-time, one of which was turned in by Putz in 2007.
— The verdict: Putz is the hard thrower the Mets lacked. He is a major upgrade over the likes of Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez and Luis Ayala.

Jeremy Reed, CF, fourth or fifth outfielder off the bench
— The deal: acquired in a 12-player deal with Seattle and Cleveland late Wed. night.
— Age: 27
— Height: 6-0
— Weight: 160
— Fun fact: Ranked 25th in 2004 and 33rd in 2005 by Baseball America among all prospects in baseball.
— Here are Reed’s career stats.
— Here’s a look at where Reed ranked in Seattle’s system in 2005.
— The verdict: Reed will probably bring a good enough glove to replace Chavez. They also have strikingly similar histories at the plate (Reed’s career OPS is .679; Chavez’s is .680). Reed is younger (27 to 30), but may not be as much of a base-stealing threat as a pinch-runner (Chavez has 78 career steals; Reed has 19, although in half as many games).

Sean Green, RHP, in competition for a spot in middle relief
— The deal: acquired in a 12-player deal with Seattle and Cleveland late Wed. night.
— Age: 29
— Height: 6-6
— Weight: 230
— Fun fact: He is not this guy.
— Here are Green’s career stats.
— Green is an interesting guy. He started off the season very strong in ‘08, with three of his first four months bordering on exceptional. But it all fell apart in August and September. If you want to see for yourself, check out his game log from the season here. It happened in 2007 as well.
— The verdict: Green, a big sidearmer, pitched well to start last season before falling apart after the break. His future with the club remains to be seen.

It didn’t take much longer than 24 hours for the Mets to revamp the back end of their bullpen. They acquired J.J. Putz tonight from the Seattle Mariners for a package that included Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, Endy Chavez and B-Mets prospect Mike Carp.

Omar Minaya, at a late-night press conference in Las Vegas, just said he’s heard all offseason from Met fans how he needs to address one area: The bullpen.

“Well, to you Mets fans: We’ve addressed the bullpen,” Minaya just said from the Bellagio.

Putz, who closed in Seattle for the last two seasons, will presumably fill the eighth-inning role in front of Francisco Rodriguez. He provides the Mets with a strikeout guy they sorely lacked last season — the type of guy Jerry Manuel wanted, a crossover guy.

Putz didn’t come cheap. The Mets sent Heilman, Chavez and Carp to Seattle, and sent Carp, one of their top hitting prospects, to the Mariners. Carp was likely the hardest piece for the club to part with. He was the organization’s minor league player of the year in 2006. He struggled in 2007, but bounced back this year and was one of the top sluggers in the system.

I’ll have more later on the new makeup of the ‘pen. For now, here’s a look at the deal in full:

Mets acquire:
J.J. Putz, RHP, Mariners
Shawn Green, RHP, Mariners
Jeremy Reed, OF, Mariners

Mariners acquire:
Aaron Heilman, RHP, Mets
Endy Chavez, OF, Mets
Mike Carp, 1B/OF, Mets (minors)
Maikel Cleto, RHP, Mets (minors)
Ezequiel Carrera, OF, Mets (minors)
Jason Vargas, LHP, Mets (minors)
Franklin Gutierrez, OF, Indians

Indians acquire:
Joe Smith, RHP, Mets
Luis Valbuena, Mariners (minors)

The Mets have come to a preliminary agreement with Francisco Rodriguez on a three-year, $37-million deal. It sounds like it may not be official for a day or so as K-Rod has a physical and completes the paperwork. So barring unforeseen circumstances, the Mets have their closer.

Here’s the AP report.

The question now: What (or who) comes next?

If you’ve been to Vegas, you know the city always seems to energize people. It’s the type of place your buddy who dozes off during World Series games stays up ‘til 7 a.m.

Well, the City of Sin has finally brought a little excitement to an otherwise chilly beginning to the hot stove season. According to several reports, the Mets made an offer of three years to Francisco Rodriguez and met with the reps for Trevor Hoffman and Brian Fuentes. And Kerry Wood is on the agenda.

It’ll be interesting if the Mets give truth to the theory that they will offer K-Rod, Fuentes and Wood and then sign whoever accepts a deal first. That’s risky business for K-Rod, who will want a better offer but has to fear the market. He wants money and the Mets have the most moolah to offer. Essentially, K-Rod — and to a lesser extent Fuentes and Wood — will be playing a high-stakes game of poker with Omar Minaya. Except even the World Series of Poker doesn’t have hands worth between $20-40 million

Anyway, Minaya is scheduled to meet the media soon. Our man Peter Abraham is in Vegas capturing the action, so check out his Yankee blog for the latest news around baseball. I know it’s a Yankee blog, but Peter is there to cover all the news. Every little piece of the puzzle has an impact on teams in the hunt like the Mets.

Here’s the release from the club:

METS SIGN FOUR PLAYERS TO MINOR LEAGUE CONTRACTS

FLUSHING, N.Y., December 3, 2008 – Righthanded pitcher Nelson Figueroa, who was 3-3 with a 4.57 ERA for the New York Mets last year, was one of four minor league free agents who signed with the club today. All four players, lefthanded pitcher Adam Bostick, infielder Andy Green, catcher Rene Rivera and Figueroa received non-roster invitations to spring training.

Figueroa, 34-years-old, made six starts for the Mets in 2008. He worked 45.1 innings, surrendered 48 hits, 26 runs, 23 earned, with 26 walks and 36 strikeouts. He was also 4-7 with a 4.43 ERA in 20 games (16 starts) for New Orleans (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League last year. He has a 10-20 record with a 4.64 ERA in 90 major league games, 39 starts.

Bostick, 25, had his season limited to 11 games after undergoing left knee surgery on May 27. Adam went 2-2 with a 6.04 ERA with New Orleans last season. In 44.2 innings, he allowed 48 hits, 30 runs, earned, with 20 walks and 30 strikeouts.

Green, 31, split the year between the Cincinnati Reds’ Louisville team of the International League and the Mets’ New Orleans club. He was released by Louisville on July 1 and played his first game for New Orleans the next day.

Primarily a second baseman, Green hit .233 with 15 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 19 RBI for Louisville and .331 with 10 doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 28 RBI in 52 games with the Zephyrs.

He played in the major leagues in 2004, 2005 and 2006 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and has a .199 career average in 136 games. In 2007, he played in 18 games with the Hokkaido Nippon Hamfighters of the Pacific Division of the Japanese Professional Baseball League.

Rivera, 25, had been the Seattle Mariners’ organization since 2001. Last year, he performed for two teams: Jacksonville (AA) of the Southern League and Las Vegas (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League. He hit .231 in 38 games with Jacksonville and .271 in 38 contests for Las Vegas.

Rene performed in 53 games with the Mariners in parts of 2004, 2005 and 2006 and has a .227 big league average with seven doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI.