By shedding Kris Benson's $7.5 million salary from the payroll for 2006 and 2007, Minaya may also be positioning himself for another, bolder move. The free-agent starter Jeff Weaver, a former Yankee, is still available and will probably command a high price. Weaver, 29, has an excellent repertory and has averaged 199.4 innings a season over his seven-year major-league career. He could slide nicely into the rotation of a team with grand expectations. "Yes, we have some flexibility," Minaya said of the team's reduced payroll. But as to alternatives to in-house pitching options on the free-agent market, "there's not much out there," he said. Signing a big-name starter like Weaver would seem to be the only thing left on Minaya's off-season to-do list. Most recently, his focus has been on improving the bullpen, and he has remodeled it in rapid fashion, but at the cost of depleting the surplus of starting pitching the Mets had only three weeks ago, before they traded Jae Seo and Benson.