Delgado plans to meet with Rangers Friday

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Carlos Delgado met with the New York Mets in Puerto Rico for a second time Thursday, a three-hour session that included the team's ownership and the first baseman's agent.

	Carlos Delgado First Base Toronto Blue Jays Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS GM HR RBI R SB AVG 128 32 99 74 0 .269

Delgado plans to meet Friday with Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks and general manager John Hart. He also is being courted by Florida and Baltimore, although the Orioles have not been mentioned prominently in recent days by his agent, David Sloane.

An Orioles team official told The Baltimore Sun that the team sent Sloane a modified offer of $30 million over three years, but a source familiar with the negotiations said that Sloane never received it.

When contacted last night about the number of bids from the Orioles, Sloane said: "We've received one offer and one offer only."

The Marlins have a three-year, $35 million offer on the table. "We'd go there in a heartbeat," said the Orioles official, "if we thought that would get it done."

The New York Daily News reported that the Mets offer was said to be comparable or slightly less than the three-year, $35 million contract Florida offered.

Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Omar Minaya were at Thursday's session with Delgado and Sloane.

"Having Jeff Wilpon join us for this meeting made it possible to discuss the issues regarding our respective proposals that we felt needed clarification," Sloane wrote in an e-mail. He said his side had a "better understanding" of "the challenges making this deal presents."

"I anticipate having further conversations with Omar very soon in an attempt to move things forward from here," Sloane wrote.

Minaya is trying to sign his third major free agent this offseason, following a $53 million, four-year deal with three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez and a $119 million, seven-year contract with All-Star center fielder Carlos Beltran.

Delgado, 32, and former Chicago White Sox outfielder Magglio Ordonez are the last unsigned players among the top free agents.

The Mets would count on Delgado to help revive an offense that scored just 684 runs last year, 12th among the 16 NL teams, ahead of only Arizona (615), Milwaukee (634), Montreal (635) and Pittsburgh (680).

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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