Mets acquire Burgos from Kansas City for Bannister

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) _ The first trade at baseball's winter meetings was far from a blockbuster. <br/><br/>In a swap of promising young pitchers, the New York Mets acquired hard-throwing reliever

Wednesday, December 6th 2006, 2:08 pm

By: News On 6

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) _ The first trade at baseball's winter meetings was far from a blockbuster.

In a swap of promising young pitchers, the New York Mets acquired hard-throwing reliever Ambiorix Burgos from the Kansas City Royals for starter Brian Bannister on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old Burgos saved 18 games for the Royals this year, going 4-5 with a 5.52 ERA in 67 relief appearances and one start. The right-hander bolsters a Mets bullpen that recently lost Chad Bradford and Roberto Hernandez, free agents who signed elsewhere.

``It does give me a comfort zone after losing Bradford,'' New York general manager Omar Minaya said. ``It's hard for me to pass up power arms.''

Bannister, the son of former All-Star pitcher Floyd Bannister, earned a spot in the Mets' rotation out of spring training. But the rookie right-hander missed most of the season because of a right hamstring injury and finished 2-1 with a 4.26 ERA in eight games, including six starts.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore said his team's medical staff was confident Bannister's leg is healthy. He said Bannister, who turns 26 in February, has been pitching in Mexico this offseason and doing fine.

``We look at him competing for a spot in our rotation,'' Moore said. ``There's a lot of things that go into a quality pitcher, and one of them is makeup and intelligence _ and he certainly has that.''

Burgos has impressive stuff, but he's been erratic. He struck out 72 batters and walked 37 in 73 1-3 innings last season, his second in the big leagues. His fastball reaches 95-100 mph.

``He's a young, talented, power arm _ and those guys are hard to find. You can't develop them, you've got to sign them,'' Moore said. ``He's a guy with great upside and has potential to be a closer someday. He's got overpowering stuff.''

The Mets are still pursuing lefty Barry Zito, the top starter on the free-agent market. But another player they sought got away when infielder Julio Lugo and the Boston Red Sox reached a preliminary agreement on a $36 million, four-year contract Tuesday.

The NL East champions were interested in Lugo to potentially play second base, though they did re-sign 37-year-old Jose Valentin at that spot. Lugo is expected to start at shortstop in Boston.

``I've been after Julio for a while,'' Minaya said. ``The reason I signed Valentin was I needed to protect myself early on.''

The GM also said he wasn't looking very closely at any other free-agent second basemen.

``We thought he was the one guy,'' Minaya explained.