NEW YORK - The Pittsburgh Pirates finally pulled the trigger on a trade for pitcher Kris Benson Friday, sending him to the New York Mets to help boost a rotation that had relied all season on three aging starters.

The Mets also received pitcher Victor Zambrano from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Friday.

For Benson, eligible for free agency after this season, and minor league infielder Jeff Keppinger, the Mets traded infielder Ty Wigginton, highly touted minor league pitcher Matt Peterson and infielder Jose Bautista to the Pirates. The Mets got Bautista earlier in the day from Kansas City for minor league catcher Justin Huber.

"It's kind of a relief just to get it over with. It's been a tough day," Benson said before the Pirates played at Miller Park. "If there was a team I'd be excited to go to, it would be them.

The Mets sent a private plane to Milwaukee to bring Benson to Atlanta, and he planned to start Saturday night against the Braves. He would be facing Atlanta for the third straight time."We're getting younger and transforming our roster that a year ago or two years ago was one of the oldest in baseball," Mets general manager Jim Duquette said. "Both of these pitchers are 29 years old, they still have a lot of mileage ahead of them, pitching-wise."Benson, 29, is 8-8 with a 4.22 ERA. The top pick in the 1996 draft has had injury problems, but the Mets hope he can give them a late push."He's certainly a talented guy who came into the industry with high expectations and they probably didn't play out the way everybody wanted it to," Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield said. "But Kris had a variety of injuries, too, and he's pitched well this year and pitched very well in the recent past."Littlefield said Peterson joins the organization with a lot of potential, as did Benson."He's a talented guy and he's performed well up to this point. But, in general, we're glad to get another strong-looking right-armed pitcher in the system," he said.

Wigginton was in the Mets' original starting lineup Friday night, playing second base and batting sixth. He was hitting .285 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI."I guess I blocked it out the whole time. I never expected a deal would go down," he said. "You hear all the talk every year. I guess all I could think about was going out and playing the game hard and showing respect for the game of baseball."Wigginton had a mixed reaction to the trade."Excited. At the same time, I'm kind of sad," he said. "I felt we had a good thing going over here. In the long run it looks like it will be a better situation for me on a personal side over there."The Mets, led by starters Al Leiter, Tom Glavine and Steve Trachsel, entered the day trailing the Braves by six games in the NL East. New York, which started a weekend series in Atlanta, also are in the wild-card race.To get Zambrano and minor league pitcher Bartolome Fortunato from Tampa Bay, the Mets sent their best pitching prospect - Scott Kazmir - and minor league pitcher Jose Diaz to the Devil Rays.