NEW YORK--With the acquisition and signing of ace pitcher Johan Santana, the New York Mets instantly became the favorite to win the NL East. It came at a price, however, as the Mets were forced to send four promising prospects to Minnesota, further draining their already thin minor league system.

On Tuesday, in an effort to refurbish that system, the Mets sent uber-talented third baseman David Wright to the Triple A New Orleans Zephyrs, leaving the Mets with the top minor league position player in all of baseball.

“We have parted with way too many minor league prospects in the past year or two,” said GM Omar Minaya. “And this is one way for us to inject a little talent into our system. David is a phenomenal, five-tool player. No other minor leaguer can compare to him. Now, let me ask you: Who has the shittiest minor league in all of baseball? No, it’s not us. It’s actually the Twins. The guys we sent over there are deadbeats.”

When asked who would take over for Wright at third base this year, Minaya was noncommittal.

“Third base? Um…I’m not sure yet,” he said. “We’ll throw somebody in there. Just going over our roster I can see that we have a couple extra infielders. At any rate, when we get into the stretch run we can just call up David and have him take over. That’s the beauty of having talent in your minor league system.”

Minaya also pointed out that, with Santana leading the staff, the need for quality infielders has decreased.

“Good infield defense is not that important if you have great pitching,” he said. “With Santana taking the hill every five days, we’re really not going to need infielders because he’ll be striking everybody out. The only thing I’m really concerned about is when the batters strike out and our catcher goes to throw the ball to the third baseman, there’s not going to be anyone there. But that's the kind of problem you love to have.”

Wright took the news of his demotion in stride, saying “it’s a business” and vowing to work hard enough to force the team to take a second look at him.

“Was I surprised? Yes I was,” Wright told the Daily News. “All I can do is continue to work hard every day and hope to get another opportunity. If I don’t get one, I can retire knowing that I was able to play big league baseball for a while, and that’s something nobody can take away from me. Besides, I’ll be the top player in all of minor league baseball this year. How many major leaguers can say that?”

With the addition of Wright, the Zephyrs are now only one player short of being able to field a complete team every day. Minaya plans to add a player before the start of spring training to bring the team up to speed.

“We still need to fill out the roster a bit,” said Minaya. “Obviously you can’t send eight guys out there to compete against nine. It’s times like this that I miss Lastings Milledge. Is there some way we can re-acquire him? We need him for trade bait.”

Copyright 2007, The Brushback - Do not reprint without permission. This article is satire and is not intended as actual news.