Marlins Trade Lo Duca to Mets

With only 86 shopping days left before spring training, the New York Mets crossed another item off their list Sunday by acquiring catcher Paul Lo Duca from the Florida Marlins for two minor league pitchers, National League officials said.

The deal is expected to be announced today, pending physicals, and it reunites Lo Duca with former Marlin teammate Carlos Delgado, who was shipped to the Mets last week in the first stages of Florida’s payroll-slashing frenzy.

“It’s something they didn’t want to do, but they had to,” Lo Duca, who was traded to the Marlins by the Dodgers midway through the 2004 season, told the Miami Herald. He added that Florida owner Jeffrey Loria’s hands were tied. “He wants to win. It’s probably killing him inside,” Lo Duca said. “But not getting a stadium deal, it’s a stadium decision.”

Two days after Luis Castillo was shipped to the Minnesota Twins, Lo Duca was next out the door, though it initially looked like as if he were headed to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But with Met General Manager Omar Minaya in a holding pattern on the top two free-agent catchers, Bengie Molina and Ramon Hernandez, his preliminary talks with the Marlins quickly escalated until the agreement was struck on the eve of baseball’s winter meetings, which begin today in Dallas.

Lo Duca, a three-time All-Star, will earn $6.25 million in each of the next two seasons. A Brooklyn native who grew up in Arizona, he still has family and friends in New York and was happy with the trade.

“My uncle cried this morning,” he said. “Everyone is so excited. It’s exciting because my family wanted me to [be traded] to Arizona, but the second-best place was to go to New York.”

Minaya is not done renovating the Mets, and saving a few million dollars on this deal could factor into his trade discussions this week for outfielder Manny Ramirez and a starting pitcher, perhaps Barry Zito or Javier Vazquez.

The Mets already have absorbed the $48 million left on Delgado’s contract -- minus the $7-million payout from the Marlins -- and signed closer Billy Wagner to a $43-million, four-year contract.

Lo Duca, a career .285 hitter, batted .283 last season with six home runs and 57 runs batted in, down from 13 homers and 80 RBIs in 11 fewer games in 2004.

The top pitcher in the Lo Duca deal is Gaby Hernandez, a 19-year-old right-hander who split last season between two Class-A clubs. The other prospect is yet to be named.

From Newsday

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Free-agent right-hander Paul Byrd, who last season was 12-11 with a 3.74 earned-run average for the Angels, is close to finalizing a $14.25-million, two-year contract with the Cleveland Indians.

Byrd was trying to complete a deal with the Indians, a person familiar with the negotiations said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet in place.

The pitcher’s decision to sign with Cleveland was first reported by ESPN.com, which said Byrd and the Indians had reached an agreement. The person familiar with the talks told the Associated Press that there were a few outstanding issues remaining.

The Angels bumped their initial one-year, $5.5-million offer to Byrd to two years and $14 million with a third-year option. But Byrd, torn between returning to Anaheim or playing closer to his Atlanta home, hedged.

It initially looked as if Byrd would remain with the Angels, but the club withdrew its offer and instead signed free-agent right-hander Hector Carrasco to a $6.1-million, two-year contract Friday.

From the Associated Press