The Season of Heartbreak never ends for the Mets and their fans. The Yankees took it on the chin a little bit too yesterday, but the Mets were knocked out cold.
The team that lost 92 games this past season lost another big one, and the 2010 season is over before it has even started.
Once again Omar Minaya and the Mets were outsmarted by their chief rival, the Phillies. The next four years appear to be a wasteland for the Mets because now the Phillies seem set to add Roy Halladay’s brilliant arm.
The 59-win Nationals are the Mets’ new chief rival.
Omar, how low can you go?
In a monster three-team trade that figures to be finalized shortly, the Phillies will add Halladay, giving up Cliff Lee to the Mariners while the Blue Jays come away with prospects — including, possibly, top Philly pitching prospect Kyle Drabek.
If Drabek is included in the deal, the Phillies will have dealt away a big piece of their future — but, hey, they get a sure thing in the present.
These were the kinds of moves the Wilpons promised us when they made Minaya the boss. At this rate, Minaya will not be around to see July 4.
Halladay is expected to sign a three-year extension that will keep him in Philadelphia through the 2013 season, at least. All along he wanted to stay with a team that was close to his home in Florida, and Clearwater, the Phillies’ spring home, is just that place.
The day was a double whammy for the Mets because they had designs on signing rugged right-hander John Lackey, who agreed to a five-year deal with the Red Sox. He was the free agent pitcher the Mets had to have.
“The Mets got killed by this move,’’ said one MLB exec.
And today is the Mets holiday party.
Lackey makes the Red Sox rotation better, but Yankees GM Brian Cashman was afraid that Halladay would wind up in a Red Sox uniform.
“Cash did not want Halladay in Fenway,’’ said one Yankees insider. The Yankees might only have to see the right-hander with the 148-76 record in the World Series. He is no longer even in their league anymore.
The Red Sox were bound to do something. They couldn’t just stand around and watch the Yankees walk away with their 27th World Series and Curtis Granderson in the Winter Meetings.
Hideki Matsui also is moving to the Angels as a free agent, but the Yankees elected to go with the rotational DH, which allows manager Joe Girardi to manage his veterans so Matsui was history.
What this all means is that it looks as if the ALCS is going to feature the Yankees and Red Sox for quite some time. The Red Sox now have a Texas Two-Step of Josh Beckett and Lackey. Throw in Jon Lester, and their Big Three matches up favorably with the Yankees top three starters CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte.
The Red Sox still have offensive woes, though. They are expected to make one other big move and trade for Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, using pitcher Clay Buchholz as bait.
The Mets think they are still in play for Jason Bay, whose right shoulder is a question mark, but he could wind up with the Giants or Mariners. The Mets are built on a house of cards.
Now they have only second-line pitchers available to them. The Omar Era has produced only one star starter in Johan Santana.
For the Mets to climb out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves, there has to be a new mindset.
There has to be a creative look at the NL East. The Phillies keep getting better and the Mets keep getting worse.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com