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Santana—Meet the Met: USA Today

All that’s left now is for the lefthander to sign on the dotted line, says USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, but it looks like Johan Santana’s next set of pinstriped will be those brandished by the New York Mets—and outfield prize Fernando Martinez won’t be part of the package, after all.

Nightengale reported moments ago that the Mets and the Minnesota Twins—according to “high-ranking officials” with the Twins and “a person close to Santana”—have a deal done, pending the Mets and Santana agreeing on his contract extension (six or even seven years, according to Nightengale, with a 72-hour signing window that isn’t likely to be blown) and Santana taking a physical examination.

Nightengale’s report emerged Tuesday afternoon, shortly after ESPN’s Buster Olney reported baseball officials thought the New York Mets had the best chance of the pack of landing Santana. That was a day after the Twins—at Santana’s reported request—exercised a midday Monday deadline for offers, while the Mets dropped a tantalising hint of a deal by recalling outfielder Carlos Gomez from winter ball (where he’d have played in the Carribbean Series if he stayed).

The Met package was likely to include Gomez, pitcher Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. Earlier Tuesday, according to Olney, the Twins were “expected to make a decision soon” on whether to accept one of the offers, though Santana’s agent stayed quiet on both the talks’ status and whether Santana himself pushed for resolution.

Olney also said it wasn’t known whether Santana “explicitly informed the Twins that he would invoke his no-trade clause for the rest of the year and then file for free agency after the 2008 season, but that has always been his right. It appears that the Twins have taken his request seriously.”

The New York Yankees were likely out of the picture after Monday, Olney suggested, while the crosstown Mets—who have the largest apparent need for Santana’s breed of pitcher, and may not have to include shortstop Jose Reyes in any deal (an inclusion the Mets won’t budge on refusing), while thought to be dangling Gomez, Humber, and other prospects of varying tiers—may have had the best chance of getting and signing Santana long term, as of the Monday deadline, if the Twins wanted to let him go now.

Olney and others cautioned, however, that the Yankees couldn’t be included out, necessarily, considering the possibility of Andy Pettitte becoming too distracted by his ties to the Roger Clemens case and Hank Steinbrenner deciding to send his troops to the table with the Philip Hughes/Ian Kennedy-led package.

But there will be joy in Metsville, then because the mighty Yankees struck out: various reports indicate that when Yankees yanked Hughes off the proverbial table the Twins and the Empire Emeritus quit talking, though the Twins checked in Monday to see if anything changed and learned they hadn’t: general manager Brian Cashman didn’t want to give up Hughes.

The Boston Red Sox were still thought to be pondering a lineup for a possible deal, with or without either of two World Series heroes, Jon Lester or Jacoby Ellsbury (your correspondent thought Lester would have gone sooner than Ellsbury if it came down to the Red Sox getting the deal)—if they suspected a possible injury compromise to their coming 2008 pitching picture. But the word now is that the Red Sox changed no offer in two months.

The Twins still had at least one incentive to keep Santana around for 2008 if nothing else: if he walks as a free agent next offseason, the Twins would have received a pair of compensatory draft picks. If he’s to be dealt for real, now—and the latest observations seem to suggest the Mets have the most means right now to sign him long-term, as he wants in any deal, while the Twins are into Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer for $104 million on new contract extensions—the Twins get their package.

All this a day after Impact Sports reported the Mets had yanked Gomez from winter ball Monday. Over the weekend, the Seattle Mariners recalled outfield prospect Adam Jones from winter ball likewise, in the event a deal got done for Baltimore lefthander Erik Bedard. Impact didn’t specify whether Gomez was returning to the U.S. for a trade-related physical, but the speculation around Jones had him traveling to Baltimore for that purpose.

And it gets a little better, if you’re a Met fan. If you believe Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports, the Mets just might have fleeced the Twins in broad daylight: Aside from Gomez (unlike Ellsbury) still having to prove he can hit Show pitching (defencively he’s a whip and he has speed to spare), Rosenthal thinks Mulvey and Humber might shake out as little better than mid-to-rear-end starters while Guerra hasn’t moved beyond Class A mounds and is set to pitch at AA in 2008..

But that’s one man’s view. Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated points out the Twins get what Baseball America considers the Mets’ numbers two, three, four, and seven prospects, while citing an unnamed executive as saying the Twins “got some upside guys. It’s a scout’s deal. The scouts are projecting on those guys.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Catbird, Johan Santana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.