Holt, Harvey, Familia, and Minaya

[Guest Edgy DC]

I've been excited by some steps forward taken by some Mets pitching prospects this offseason. I've certainly been adversarial toward characterizations of the Mets' system as barren, but I also take a small degree of human pleasure in the modest redemption this might mean for Omar Minaya's reputation. It's like he still can spot talent, and always could, but he couldn't run an organization --- or necessarily make long-term judgments with free-agent contracts.

Maybe the problem was virtually all on the development side of scouting and development. Maybe Tony Bernazard really was the devil.

[MFS62]

With the recent emergence of Jose Bautista as a slugger, I'm waiting for the anti-Minaya articles that will point out that he was a throw-in in the deal for Kris Benson.
Some of the so-called Mets writers like to rabble-rouse stuff like that.
Yes, Omar selected some pretty good talent that, as you said, is just now developing.
Later

[Gwreck]

Fair point, although we never developed Bautista. In order to get the Benson deal done, we shipped a prospect to KC to get Bautista, and then included Bautista in the package we sent to Pittsburgh.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, Pitt had gotten slammed in the previous winter's Rule 5 draft and saw the Mets interest in Kris Benson as a way to get one of their wayward prospects back.
So instead of just Wigginton & (RHP) Peterson for Benson (and Keppinger) Pitt said that they'd only make the deal if the Mets arranged to get Bautista there too. The Mets then had to make a separate deal sending Aussie catching prospect Justiin Huber to the Royals for Bautista and then stapled him to the others going in the Benson swap. So, yeah, he was a NYM, but only a paper one really.

The bottom line is that after being property of 5 organizations in a seven month span (Pitt-Balt-TB-KC-NYM-then back to Pitt) the Pirates kept him around for four years before dealing him to Toronto for a PtbNL (Robinson Diaz). Two seasons later he exploded.
Point is, if we're looking for culprits to blame for not developing Bautista properly, not only are the Mets not at the top of that list but they're barely in the class picture.