The New York Post’s Joel Sherman, skulking around the Winter Meetings, seems to think so.

An executive familiar with Tampa’s thinking said if the offers for Johan Santana grow to a substantial level, then the Rays would test to see what they could get for Scott Kazmir.

The thinking is that because Kazmir is three years from free agency as opposed to one year for Santana, he might bring nearly as much in return.

The Rays need multiple high-end pitchers, and Kazmir, just about to enter arbitration eligibility for the first time, might be too expensive and ready to depart just as Tampa is projecting contention in two to three years.

How comical would it be if the Mets, with their No. 1 need being a No. 1 starter, found themselves trying to trade for Kazmir 3½ seasons after getting Victor Zambrano for him?

Almost as funny as the propsect of Steve Traschel — released by the Cubs last week — being invited to throw out the first pitch at Shea Stadium’s Opening Day next April (well, either him or Glavine).

Sobering stuff, by the way, from The New York Sun’s Tim Marchman, interviewed Monday at Mets Geek (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory).

The team has lost so much credibility that this could, in itself, lead to asinine moves. A few months ago everyone knew the team needed a reliever, but Minaya was able to say that he wasn™t paying top dollar for someone else™s garbage and reliably loudmouthed types shut up about it. They won™t shut up the next time he says as much, and moron pressure is a deadly and powerful force.

And don™t forget that the team is run by the Wilpon family, which has a long history of buying crap they don™t need whenever something goes wrong and throwing money at problems to make them go away. This is what rich people do. Sadly, these rich people hire bad pitchers rather than tricking out tacky vintage cars or buying bad art.