updated 12:24 a.m. ET Sept. 24, 2008

NEW YORK - The New York Mets and general manager Omar Minaya are close to reaching an agreement on a new contract.

The deal probably will be for four years running through the 2012 season but the length could change before the contract is finalized, a person familiar with the talks said Tuesday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed.

Minaya skirted the issue after New York beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 on Tuesday night, saying only that he would talk to Jeff Wilpon, the club’s chief operating officer, about his contract after the season.

“I have a very good relationship with Jeff and I think that he enjoys working with me,” Minaya said. “We’ll sit down and talk.”

Minaya took over as GM in September 2004, agreeing to a five-year contract, and the Mets won the NL East in 2006. They collapsed last season, wasting a seven-game lead with 17 to play, and Minaya took some heat after bringing manager Willie Randolph back for this season only to fire him during a West Coast trip in June.

The Mets were precariously close to another collapse before beating the Cubs. They lead Milwaukee by one game in the wild-card race and are 1½ games back of Philadelphia in the NL East with five games left on their schedule.

Minaya, 49, grew up in a Dominican family in Queens, where his mother worked in a plastics factory. His father worked on the Brooklyn docks.

After a brief and undistinguished professional playing career in the minor leagues, he worked for the Texas Rangers from 1985-95, then was hired by the Mets two years later as an assistant general manager. He was promoted to senior assistant GM in 1998, then in 2002 was hired by the commissioner’s office as Montreal’s general manager.

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