MLB

Pettitte: Oswalt wants a contender

Of course, the Mets should want Roy Oswalt. But this is not about what the Mets want. This is about what Roy Oswalt — owner of a full no-trade clause — wants.

And all signs are that he does not want the Mets.

Andy Pettitte played with Oswalt for three seasons in Houston, still considers the righty among his best friends and converses with Oswalt regularly. Oswalt has confided in Pettitte what he would approve and that is why Pettitte said: “I really shouldn’t say anything because of our relationship.”

But Pettitte did provide a strong clue about the Mets when he said: “Roy doesn’t want to guess. He would only leave to take a real shot at the World Series.”

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Translation: The Mets are a guess, not a sure contender. When asked directly about Oswalt being a Met, Pettitte said: “He could handle New York because he is comfortable with who he is and what kind of pitcher he is. But we went to the World Series in ’05, and he wants to go someplace that he can get to the World Series.”

The Mets, even after taking two of three from the Yankees, are not currently anyone’s idea of a World Series contender.

And this is just one of many, many hurdles facing the Mets. Despite what ownership has said publicly, Omar Minaya has told outside executives he does not have money to spend in trades, and Oswalt is due about $43 million for the next 2 ¾ seasons. In addition, Oswalt would cost significant prospects to even titillate Houston owner Drayton McLane. And the Mets would have to invest big dollars and big prospects in a pitcher with a long-standing back problem.

But if the Mets are going to get into this game, they have a model to follow from last year involving Jake Peavy, who coincidentally is one of Oswalt’s best friends.

At about this time last year, Peavy used his no-trade clause to reject a deal from San Diego to the White Sox because he did not view then-struggling Chicago as a contender. Peavy’s preference list was to stay in the NL with the Cubs, Dodgers or Braves. But between the third week of May and late July, the Padres played worse, the White Sox became contenders and the teams revived and completed the trade at the deadline. This time Peavy accepted.

“I was shocked when Jake said yes. Heck, I was shocked that he even considered it after turning it down two months earlier,” Peavy’s agent, Barry Axelrod, said yesterday. “The landscape had totally changed.”

In other words, the White Sox were not the ideal landing place, but by late July they looked like a lot better place to spend the next few years of his career for Peavy than San Diego, which told its ace that it was committed to driving down payroll and rebuilding. So this is the first hurdle the Mets can clear if they really want Oswalt: They can turn the successful Subway weekend into an extended stretch of strong play that makes them look like a contender to Oswalt.

However, even that might not be enough. Kevin Towers, then the Padres general manager and now a special assignment scout with the Yankees, cited two elements that existed in the Peavy deal that could be a Mets roadblock with Oswalt:

1. White Sox general manager Kenny Williams talked to Peavy and convinced him of the organization’s long-term commitment to winning. Can Minaya, hardly an inspiring wordsmith, do the same? Especially since a friend of Oswalt said yesterday that “stability is important to Roy,” and the Mets cannot guarantee Minaya or Jerry Manuel will be around much longer.

2. Peavy also relied on the White Sox testimonial of his pal Scott Linebrink, who was his teammate from 2003-07 in San Diego and already was a White Sox. The only current Met who was a significant teammate of Oswalt’s in Houston was Carlos Beltran for half of 2004. And the Mets should hope Oswalt does not contact Beltran, who has distaste for the organization over his medical care last year and for the dispute over if he should have knee surgery in the offseason.

Oswalt’s friend said his relationship with Pettitte would move him to accept a deal to the Yanks, and everyone spoken to yesterday said to keep an eye on Atlanta, which nearly completed a trade for Peavy at the GM Meetings after the 2008 season. But neither the Yanks nor Atlanta has an obvious starting need, and neither does Boston or Tampa Bay. The Rangers and Dodgers do, but have major financial constraints.

In other words, some teams that Oswalt might want just might not want Oswalt. So if the Mets do want Oswalt, they need to keep winning to at least potentially make themselves more attractive to him.

joel.sherman@nypost.com