Well, it’s official. Fernando Tatis is back in the Mets fold, which could be the nail in the coffin for Carlos Delgado’s return. Tatis is a solid utility player who can give first baseman Daniel Murphy a rest and a provide right-handed bat off the bench.

It doesn’t look good for those hoping Delgado would rebound and get signed with the Mets again. He’s improved in Winter League play, but some still aren’t confident in his range at first.

Tatis is like the Energizer bunny for the Mets. The 2008 comeback player of the year just keeps coming back for more.

The Mets and former Rockie Josh Fogg have agreed to a minor league contract, according to MLB.com,  so he could vie for a starting rotation spot in Spring Training.

The former starter was a righty reliever with the Rockies last season where he had a 3.74 ERA. His career  ERA as a starter is over 5.

Spring Training is going to be crowded with pitchers jockeying for a spot in the starting rotation. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top.

The Mets can kiss another potential starting pitcher goodbye as the Oakland A’s signed big question mark Ben Sheets today to a one-year $10 million deal.

Sure, signing sheets was a gamble, but it might’ve been a worthy one. Whether or not Sheets can be what he was in 2008 is the big unknown. Frankly, $10 million seems like an awful lot for someone who hasn’t proven himself in more than a season and is coming off surgery.

Some good news did arrive today for the Mets. Johan Santana threw about 25 pitches this morning in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and said he felt good after, according to ESPN. He also said he didn’t feel anything strange in his arm and his mechanics were good.

Johan Santana is scheduled to throw off the mound Tuesday in Port St. Lucie where he will be attending the Mets’ three-day mini-camp.

“I’m feeling good. Time will tell, but I am feeling good,” he told The Associated Press on Monday. “We did a pretty good job with the offseason, working out and doing all the rehab, and I’m feeling good. Everything is on schedule.”

Santana had surgery at the end of last season to remove some bone chips from his pitching elbow.

Oliver Perez, who is recovering from scar tissue in his knee last season, also said he’s feeling good.

“Right now I don’t feel anything,” he said. “I think that’s why I’m really happy.”

If both Santana and Perez come back and stay healthy, that will make the Mets management very happy.

The New York Mets today announced they have acquired outfielder Gary Matthews, Jr. and cash consideration from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in exchange for righthanded pitcher Brian Stokes.

Matthews, Jr., 35, hit .250 with four home runs and 50 RBI in 103 games last year, his third season with the Angels.  Over his final 37 games, the switch-hitting Matthews, Jr. batted .289 and compiled a .410 on-base percentage for the Angels in their drive to the American League West title.  He made a combined 80 starts at all three outfield positions in 2009, with the majority (46) coming in centerfield.  His .358 (29-81) batting average with runners in scoring position led the team.  Additionally, his .395 (17-43) average with runners in scoring position and two outs was sixth best in the majors.

Originally selected by San Diego in the 13^th round of the 1993 draft, Matthews, Jr. made his major league debut six years later with the Padres.  He earned an All-Star Game selection while with Texas in 2006, when he established career bests with a .313 batting average, 19 home runs, 79 RBI, 102 runs scored and 44 doubles.

He collected his 1,000^th career hit last year on July 10 against the Yankees to team with his father, Gary Matthews, Sr. as the 15^th father and son combination to reach that plateau.

The 6-3, 225-pound Matthews, Jr. is set for his second stint with the Mets after having appeared in two games with the team in 2002.  Under contract through the 2011 season, Matthews, Jr. has played in 1,245 games over 11 major league seasons with the Padres (1999 and 2003), Cubs (2000-2001), Pirates (2001), Mets, Orioles (2002-2003), Rangers (2005-2006) and Angels (2007-2009).  He is a career .258 hitter (1,045-4,045) with 108 home runs and 483 RBI.

Stokes, 30, pitched out of the Mets bullpen last year, establishing career highs in games (69), innings (70.1) and strikeouts (45).  Stokes made his major league debut in 2006 with Tampa Bay and is 6-11 with a 5.02 ERA in 157 career games.

The Mets will announce a trade today that will bring Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. to New York. Reliable reliever Brian Stokes will head to Los Angeles, according to FoxSports.com.

The move will provide some insurance in center field after Carlos Beltran had surgery on his knee and will miss the first few weeks of the season. The question is, will Matthews start or will Angel Pagan? Well, that’s what Spring Training is for.

The Angels will reportedly pay the majority of Matthews contract for 2010 and 2011 totaling $23 million. It’s a hefty sum for a team simply trying to unload someone whom they don’t have a spot for, but it’s a practical steal for the Mets.

Matthews spent three seasons with the Angels, who used him less and less in that time span. Last season, he had four home runs and 50 RBI in 103 games. That was markedly less than his 2007 season when he had 18 home runs and 72 RBI in 140 games.

However, if you factor in the difference in the number of games played, his RBI production really hasn’t diminished that much. While he’s maintained a batting average around .250 in those three years, his home run and stolen base totals have not kept pace.

Still, even when Beltran comes back, the Mets will have a solid backup to give Jeff Francoeur and Jason Bay days off.

Joel Piniero and Doug Davis are off the market as the former signed a two-year deal with the Angels for $16 million and the latter is headed to Milwaukee for one year at $5.5 million.

In addition, Vincente Padilla just today re-signed with the Dodgers for a one-year $5.025 million deal

That leaves Jon Garland, Ben Sheets, who hasn’t pitched since 2008, Erik Bedard, Pedro Martinez, Jarrod Washburn and Chien-Ming Wang among the cream of the rapidly disappearing crop. Cream might be putting it kindly.

It’s high time the Mets management gets off its butts and signs another starter before the well runs dry. There are just too many questions about the current starting rotation candidates to not add another arm.

With Bengie Molina off the market and the Mets claiming they’re going to stick with what they have at catcher, it frees up money to go out and get Garland. They need to do it and do it fast.

Jeff Francoeur and the Mets avoided arbitration after the mid-season pickup signed a one-year, $5 million contract.

Meanwhile, relievers Sean Green and Pedro Feliciano also were able to work out deals for undisclosed sums to keep them on the roster for another season.

It’s a bit surprising the Mets kept Green, who showed some promised but faltered later in the season. He sported a 4.52 ERA and was known for blowing leads, bouncing around from setup man to mop-up duty.

Feliciano was much more solid, posting a 3.03 ERA. He was the workhorse of the bullpen pitching in a club record 88 relief appearances.

The Mets will have to look elsewhere for a pitcher as the San Francisco Giants re-signed Bengie Molina to a one-year, $4.5 million deal, which is just a half million less than the Mets reportedly offered.

Catchers Rod Barajas of the Blue Jays and Yorvit Torrealba of the Rockies might be other options as they both are unsigned.

They also could choose to stay internal with Omir Santos, new acquisitions Chris Coste and Henry Blanco, or farm prospect Josh Thole duking it out for the starting and back-up roles.

None of these options is ideal since none really have proven to be offensive weapons, at least not yet. While Santos performed admirably last year, no one expects him to have the firepower of Molina. Thole needs more seasoning. Blanco hit .235 with six home runs and 16 RBI in 67 games last season, while Coste hit a combined .225 with two home runs and 18 RBI in 88 games with the Phillies and Astros.

Do you think the Mets should go for Barajas or Torrealba or stick with what they have?

The Mets will induct its first Hall of Fame class Aug. 1 since Tommie Agee was selected in 2002. Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Frank Cashen, general manager of the 1986 World Champion Mets, and Davey Johnson, manager of the 1986 club, are this year’s inductees.

Below is the official release by the Mets:

The New York Mets today announced that Frank Cashen, general manager of the 1986 World Champion Mets, Dwight Gooden, the 1985 National League Cy Young Award winner, Davey Johnson, manager of the 1986 club, and Darryl Strawberry, the franchise’s career home run leader, will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame on Sunday, Aug. 1, prior to the Mets hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks at 1:10 p.m.

“It was very important to re-establish the Mets Hall of Fame Committee,” said Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, who serves as Ex-Officio for the Selection Committee.  “The committee made great choices and all four inductees played a vital role in our success during the 1980s.  Each individual was a unanimous recommendation and on behalf of myself and the rest of Ownership I was pleased to approve them.”

Gooden, Strawberry, Johnson and Cashen made their mark on the Mets in the 1980s and were key contributors for the 1986 World Championship team.  This class will be the first to be inducted since Tommie Agee in 2002.

Cashen was general manager and the architect of the 1986 Mets, drafting and overseeing the development of Strawberry and Gooden, tapping Johnson as manager, and trading for established All-Stars Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter.  From 1984-1991, the Mets averaged more than 95 victories, won the World Series in 1986, and a second NL East title in 1988.  Cashen remained in the Mets front office as chief operating officer from 1980-1992.

Gooden has the second most wins (157) and strikeouts (1,875) in franchise history, trailing only Mets and National Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.  Gooden holds the Mets record for most shutouts in a season (8) and owns the major league record for most strikeouts by a rookie in a season (276).  “Doc” electrified Mets fans for 11 seasons, finishing his Mets career with a 157-85 record and a 3.10 earned run average.  The righthander burst onto the scene in 1984, winning 17 games and the National League Rookie of the Year honors.  He continued his dominance the following season by winning the pitching Triple Crown – leading the National League in wins (24), strikeouts (268) and ERA (1.53) – and capturing the Cy Young Award.

Johnson transformed the Mets into winners after seven straight losing seasons and has the highest winning percentage (.588) of any manager in club history.  The Mets ran away with the NL East, winning a club-record 108 games, on their way to their second World Championship in 1986.  Johnson’s teams won an average of 95 games from 1984-1990 and took home a second division title in 1988 with 100 victories.  He finished his Mets career with a 595-417 record.

Strawberry was one of the most feared hitters in Mets history, and is the club’s leader in home runs (252), runs batted in (733), runs (662) and extra-base hits (469).  The former No. 1 draft pick won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1983 hitting 26 home runs.  The rightfielder was a seven-time All-Star with the Mets and hit 25 or more home runs in each of his eight years with the team.  In 1988, Strawberry led the league with a career-high 39 home runs as the Mets won their second NL East title in three years.

The Mets Hall of Fame now has 25 members. The 21 previous Hall of Fame members in order of the year they were inducted are: Joan Payson (1981); Casey Stengel (1981); Gil Hodges (1982); George M. Weiss (1982); William A. Shea (1983); Johnny Murphy (1983); Ralph Kiner (1984); Bob Murphy (1984); Lindsey Nelson (1984); Bud Harrelson (1986); Rusty Staub (1986); Tom Seaver (1988); Jerry Koosman (1989); Ed Kranepool (1990); Cleon Jones (1991); Jerry Grote (1992); Tug McGraw (1993); Mookie Wilson (1996); Keith Hernandez (1997); Gary Carter (2001); and Tommie Agee (2002).

The plaques of all the inductees will be one of the main attractions at the new Mets Hall of Fame and Museum which will open this season.

The Mets Hall of Fame committee was re-formed in November.  The seven-member committee is comprised of a combination of media members with long-standing connections to the club and the Mets front office staff. The members are: Dave Howard, Executive Vice President, Business Operations who has been with the organization for 18 years; Jay Horwitz, Vice President, Media Relations who enters his 31^st season with the team; Tina Mannix, Senior Director, Marketing who has been with the Mets for nine years; former Mets pitcher Al Jackson, a pitching consultant who is entering his sixth decade with the Mets; Marty Noble, the Mets.com beat writer who is entering his fifth decade covering the team; Gary Cohen, the New York native and voice of the Mets on SNY who has been a Mets broadcaster for 21 years; and Howie Rose, a Queens native and radio voice of the Mets on WFAN who has covered the team for 21 years on radio and television.

The New York Post is reporting the Mets are holding a three-day mini-camp in Port St. Lucie starting Monday to try to assess as many players coming off of injury as possible.

It’s a smart move if they can get anyone to show up that early. It’s about a month before pitchers and catchers are due to report.

It’ll be interesting to see who will show up. For example, will Jose Reyes be eager to show he’s back to fine form or will he opt to give it another month?

More typical news from the Mets: Carlos Beltran has undergone arthroscopic surgery to relieve arthritis in his right knee. According to a release by the Mets, he is not expected to start baseball activities for 12 weeks.

If you do the math, that puts him into April before he’s even ready to start getting ready for the season. So, don’t expect the Mets to have him for the first few weeks of the season. This makes the Jason Bay signing all the more important.

The question now is should the Mets go out and get a lower-tier free agent outfielder to replace him until he heals or go with someone on their current roster like Angel Pagan. Experience with arthritis shows it is a recurring problem and the Mets likely will run into this situation with Beltran again in the future.

What would you do?

Even though the temperature outside is freezing, maybe you’ll get a warm feeling knowing that the Mets players will start their Spring Training in six weeks.

Pitchers and catchers are due to report on Feb. 18, followed by position players on Feb. 23. They’ll have their first full workout two days later.

This means they only have a few weeks to make a pitch, pun intended, for a catcher and a top-of-the-rotation starter.

It’s too early to get excited, at least for me. Ask me again at the end of February.

ESPN is reporting that the Red Sox are interested in a Mike Lowell-Luis Castillo trade.

It’s hard to understand why that would be a good trade for either organization as the Sox already have a really good second baseman in Justin Pedroia and Lowell is fading with age and injury. He’s coming off thumb surgery last week and had hip surgery in 2008.

Where this trade might make sense is if the Mets do not re-sign Carlos Delgado. However, Newsday is reporting the Mets front office is still high on Delgado, who went 1-for-4 in his latest Winter League game, and are “very interested” in him still.

Then Lowell could be a starting first baseman with Daniel Murphy as a backup, giving Lowell a day or two off each week. The same case could be made for Delgado.

If you had to choose between the two, which one would you take?

The Mets signed six players, some of whom have been previously reported, to minor league contracts today. They are: infielder Russ Adams, third baseman Mike Cervenak, righthanded pitcher R.A. Dickey, outfielder Jesus Feliciano, infielder Andy Green and infielder Mike Hessman.

The official release is below:

The New York Mets today announced that they signed infielder Russ Adams, third baseman Mike Cervenak, righthanded pitcher R.A. Dickey, outfielder Jesus Feliciano, infielder Andy Green and infielder Mike Hessman to minor league contracts and invited all six to major league Spring Training camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla. next month.

Adams, 29, started last season in Toronto’s system with Las Vegas (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League before an eight-game stint with the Blue Jays in July.  He finished the season with San Diego’s organization at Portland (AAA) of the PCL, hitting .267 in 36 games.  Adams played parts of five major league seasons with the Blue Jays after making his debut in 2004.

Cervenak made his second straight International League All-Star Game last season while playing for Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate.  The 33-year-old saw his only major league action in 2008 with the Phillies, picking up his first major league hit and RBI on August 6. He spent a portion of the 2006 season playing professionally in Korea.

Dickey spilt last season between Minnesota and Rochester (AAA) of the International League.  The 35-year-old righthander made the Twins’ Opening Day roster and appeared in 35 games before being optioned to the Red Wings on August 7.  A veteran of parts of seven major league seasons with Texas, Seattle and the Twins, Dickey has a career record of 22-28.

Feliciano led the International League in hits with 154 while playing for Buffalo (AAA) last season. The 30-year-old outfielder also finished with a career-high 30 doubles and a .311 average to win the Sterling Award for the Bisons, emblematic of the team’s Most Valuable Player.  Originally drafted by the Dodgers in 1997, Feliciano appeared in six games for Team Puerto Rico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Green appeared in four games with the Mets last season, picking up one hit in four at-bats. Besides a nine-game rehabilitation stint with the GCL Mets® of the Gulf Coast League and Brooklyn (A) of the New York-Penn League, the 32-year-old utility man spent the remainder of the season with Buffalo where he hit .259 (45-174).

Hessman, 32, spent last season in Detroit’s system at Toledo (AAA) of the International League, finishing fifth in the league with 23 home runs.  The 6-1, 180-pounder last appeared in the major leagues with the Tigers in 2008 when he hit five home runs in 12 games.  Hessman has 311 career minor league home runs and won a bronze medal with Team USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

The team also announced the signings of infielder Alejandro Machado and catcher Luke Montz to contracts.  Both will be invited to minor league Spring Training next month.