"The left-handed reliever Billy Wagner said that if the situation remained the same before Tuesday's deadline, he would probably stay with the Mets, even as the Red Sox and the Mets were trying to work out a trade for him.

"Unless something changes with Boston, I'll probably be a Met," he said.

Wagner said he wanted some assurance that the Red Sox would not overuse him as he continued his recovery from ligament-replacement surgery last September.

"You wouldn't want to put them in a situation, and I don't need to go up there and feel like I've got to impress somebody coming off 11 months of Tommy John," he said, referring to the surgery. "I've come back and worked hard to get this far. To go and put myself and maybe my career in a bad situation may not be something that's good for them or for me.""