Is there a Mets fan alive who wants to see Luis Castillo at second base on Opening Day 2011?

Unfortunately, it will take a minor miracle by Sandy Alderson to move him this winter — without swallowing some or all of the $6M left on his contract.

But let’s pretend Castillo is out of the picture, and the Mets are looking at the free-agent market to take his place. In such a case what are the Mets’ options?

Gold Glove second baseman Orlando Hudson has signed a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins, prompting the Nationals to sign Adam Kennedy as their second sacker.

Thus, it appears that Mets fans will endure another year of Luis Castillo at second base.

Yes, there are delusional fans still clinging to the fantasy that the Reds will trade Brandon Phillips for Omir Santos, but I wouldn’t count on it. Castillo is most likely Jose Reyes’ partner at the keystone come Opening Day.

Is it such a terrible thing?

Forget about the ironic pipe dream of platooning Jeff Francoeur with Ryan Church in right field next year — Church has signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Additionally, you can drop the possibility of Ramon Castro returning to the Mets to bolster their second-string catching depth, since Castro has re-signed with the White Sox.

In other news, the Mets are not the only team scouting Carlos Delgado this winter. The Blue Jays are keeping tabs as well, so a return to Toronto is a possibility for the hobbling slugger. Since some people claim that Delgado is “not moving well”, his best landing spot may be in the AL where he can DH. But, I don’t remember Delgado EVER “moving well”, even when healthy, so take that scouting report with a grain of salt. I’d prefer to hear from someone who has been watching Delgado for the past three years, and is familiar with the fact his feet move like cinderblocks in oatmeal.

Speaking of former Blue Jays, the latest rumor is that Orlando Hudson is being courted by the Washington Nationals. Those Nats are quietly building what could turn out to be a pesky club. If they add O-Hud and one more veteran starter, they might have enough to jump out of the cellar. Color me concerned.

The last update to report is that Bengie Molina has supposedly lowered his contract demand to two years. Surprisingly, his door is still firm on its hinges, with no one racing to break it down. I’m still looking for the team that’s willing to give him more than one year guaranteed.

There is an excellent column written by Ben Shpigel in The New York Times explaining why the Mets want to trade Luis Castillo.

Shpigel lists a number of statistics supporting the desire to move Castillo, but it’s doubtful anyone in the Mets front office would understand the ones cited, much less use them in decision-making. So we’ll focus on the real reasons Omar Minaya and co. are hell-bent on trading the second baseman.

Free agents go on the open market today, and with a lack of trading chips, the Mets are expected to dive in deep to fill their multiple holes.

At minimum, they need at least one starting pitcher — maybe two; a catcher; a left fielder; a utility infielder; a LOOGY; a righthanded reliever; and a first baseman (though, that one’s up for argument).

With so many holes to fill and the Mets desperate to erase the 2009 season from memory, fans should fear the following.

The Hot Stove Season is underway, and already we have a flurry of buzz and rumors. One whirlwind post from Adam Rubin is chock full of information (or misinformation, take your pick), which I’ll break down here.

Except for that one matter of a dropped popup in the bottom of the ninth inning of a Yankees game, Luis Castillo played as well as anyone could have expected — and far beyond the expectations of most Mets fans.

Anyone who was reading MetsToday back in early April might remember my “Wild Mets Predictions“. Most of them were off, but one of them was:

Back in November, word on the street was that Gold Glove second baseman Orlando Hudson was looking for a 5-year, $50M contract.

Had the Mets not been saddled with the three years and $18M remaining on Luis Castillo’s contract, they surely would have at least entered the bidding on Hudson — and might have signed him quickly, as they did with Francisco Rodriguez. Certainly, it helped that Hudson had made public statements that he wanted to play in New York, and would “love” to play with Jose Reyes.

My, how times have changed.

The price for Hudson has now dropped to under $5M and only one year. What hasn’t changed is the Mets are still stuck with Castillo. However, consider this: Signing Orlando Hudson right now for one year at $5M puts the Mets at $23M over the next two years for their second baseman/men. That’s less than half of what Hudson was demanding in dollars, and is a three-year commitment as opposed to a five-year one. And instead of getting just one player for the position, the Mets get two.

Granted, for the last two years of the deal the Mets have only Castillo and not Hudson. But, there’s a chance that Castillo can prove himself healthy, and become trade bait. Before, it was too much for the Mets to swallow to have two second basemen with multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. Now, however, the idea of having Castillo and Hudson on the roster at the same time is not only palatable, it makes perfect sense.

Sure, signing Orlando Hudson to a one-year, $5M contract means that the Mets have a very, very expensive backup second baseman in Luis Castillo. But when you look at the second base position as a budget unto itself, spending a total of $11M for one year to have Hudson and Castillo man the position … well, what are the Mets waiting for?

Now, if the Mets insist they don’t have another $5M to dish out for Orlando Hudson (but have more than twice that amount for an assortment of AAAA fodder), we may as well all pack it in.