An old saying goes that “Patience is a virtue,” and it is never more true with New York Mets GM Omar MInaya. I was speaking with a New York area writer yesterday about the lack of deals thus far, when Omar’s name came up. “He was really impatient earlier in his GM tenure with Montreal, and somewhat early in New York,” he said.

I agree.

Omar, who didn’t interview, but given the job in Montreal, was a headline grabbing GM who made lots of deals just to make a deal and get his name out there. I wrote back in March 2008, that Omar wanted the Mets GM job all along and made the 2002 Bartolo Colon trade (among about 50 others) to show the Mets owners that he was a good GM willing to make that deal to get his team better. Obviously, the Mets ownership liked that aspect about Omar. But, while Omar temporarily made the Expos better, they still finished 19.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves that year, and he sacrificed the Expos future in dealing three players (the Indians’ Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore plus the Reds’ Brandon Phillips) for Colon. The current franchise in Washington has yet to recover. Current GM Jim Bowden hasn't helped things in DC either.

However, during his last couple big deals in New York, Minaya has learned the value of being patient. After the Luis Castillo debacle occured in November 2007, Omar has made decisions on which players he covets, then sits back and lets players, GM’s and agents come to him. After the Castillo deal, Omar targeted Johan Santana, then sat back as Minnesota Twins GM Bill Smith (at various times) asked for Jose Reyes, Fernando Martinez, Eddie Kunz, Bobby Parnell etc., and Minaya kept saying, “No deal.” Minaya knew that Smith HAD to trade Santana, and the Mets were one of the few teams willing to go big dollars on a contract extension for the lefty. Smith eventually dealt Santana to the Mets for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra, all good players who have (Gomez) or eventually will make the majors, but not the top guys the Mets had in their system. Minaya had targeted, and got the player he wanted, at his price - not the Twins asking price.

Now, this off season, Minaya had his eye on free agent closer Francisco Rodriguez the entire time, floating information indicating that the Mets were also considering signing free agent Brian Fuentes (a possibility), or trading for available closers JJ Putz and Bobby Jenks (not bloody likely!). Minaya sat back, using the down economy and the glut of available closers via free agency and trade to allow the market price for closers to precipitously fall. I can’t be sure if he designed it this way, but as Omar waited, more closers became available on the market, and the more the closer market price came down in price. Good old supply and demand! Remember, that Paul Kinzer, K-Rod’s agent, had floated that his client was looking for a 5 year/$75 million deal. It is quite a comedown to the proposed 3 year/$37 million K-Rod will receive.

This comedown is NOT an indication of K-Rod’s ability, but solely an indication of the current market - and Omar Minaya’s patience at the plate. A quality that New York Yankes GM Brian Cashman might want to emulate. Now, Omar can use his patient attack on a starting pitcher (Derek Lowe) and another reliever (Kerry Wood).

Congrats to NYBD’s Joe DeMayo, who had the Mets teamed with K-Rod right from the beginning. With all the rumors out here in Las Vegas (many of them insane), Joe’s information is usually spot on. He originally called the Santana deal last year and K-Rod’s deal here.