Santana traded to New York

[filbert]

The Mets, that is.
New York's Newsday:

The Mets have agreed to acquire lefthanded ace Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins for prospects Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey, Newsday has confirmed.

The deal, first reported on USA Today.com, depends on the Mets and Santana reaching an agreement on a six- or seven-year contract extension within the next three days.

Santana presumably would waive his no-trade clause to allow the deal to go through once an agreement on a new contract had been reached.

[jackmd]

Re: Santana traded to New York

The Mets, that is.
New York's Newsday:

No way the Twins wanted him in the American League, I never believed the Yankees had a chance. Plus, Santana has no DH to contend with. Win, win in my opinion. Twins could not afford to keep him. I don't know a thing about the prospects they received.

[2002jack]

Re: Santana traded to New York

No reason to keep Santana. It will be very difficult to compete with the White Sox and the Tigers this year. The Twins need to reload and look at 2010 and 2011. They could never afford to resign Santana.

[RowdyRabbit]

Re: Santana traded to New York

Now the question is....when will Santana hit his first major league homerun?

After the way he hit last year in National League ballparks, I'm betting it'll be sooner than later.

As for the trade...lets just hope it pans out like the Pierzynski trade did.

[rational thought]

Re: Santana traded to New York

I believe the Minor league players they're getting are the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 10th rated players in the minors....i smell a good deal for the twins

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: Santana traded to New York

It's just hard when you trade away arguably the best arm in baseball and you get back a bunch of guys that nobody recognizes there name. Years down the road it might turn out to be a phenominal trade but the general first reaction is that the Twins went from a contender to a pretender but the Pohlad's bottom line will be in tact. The Pohlad's seem to always be concerned about the bottom line. I don't see how this trade is going to put more butts in the seats which most definitely improves the bottom line.

Time will tell but the Twins get the thumbs down from me. Hope they prove me wrong!

SUPERBUNNY

[joeboo22]

Re: Santana traded to New York

Its a tough trade a bad one for the Twins in my case because they showed a lot of there fans that they don't care.... However I am happy that they traded him to the NL.... What I want to see now is giving young players a chance to play, they rebuild but then go and sign veterans that suck which annoys me.... I would also like to see them package some young arms and try to get a middle infielder for the future.....

[mango4]

Re: Santana traded to New York

I believe the Minor league players they're getting are the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 10th rated players in the minors....i smell a good deal for the twins

Actually it was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th in the Mets system but they didn't get the Mets top prospect which I figured they would have. Right now I'm not very pleased with the deal but we will have to see what happens once they all develop and get a shot in the bigs.

[boxerboy]

Re: Santana traded to New York

No reason to keep Santana. It will be very difficult to compete with the White Sox and the Tigers this year. The Twins need to reload and look at 2010 and 2011. They could never afford to resign Santana.

Make that the Tigers and Indians, the White Sox have their own problems with a GM that thinks he knows all.

[bigticket1]

Re: Santana traded to New York

Word is that the Twins recently upped their offer to 5 years and 100 million and Santana's response was trade me by Tuesday( yesterday) or he would not waive the no-trade clause.How this trade is viewed down the road depends if he returns to Cy Young form or has more years like last year.If he continues to lead the majors in home runs allowed and hits 100 pitches by the 5th inning,he may not lead the Mets to the promised land.

[Jacks-02]

Re: Santana traded to New York

They get the #2, #3, #4, and #7 prospects out of the Mets system, trade Santana to the NL where they only have to face him in interleague every 3 years or in the world series if they meet the Mets, and don't have to tie up 100M over the next 5 years to one player. Santana wasn't happy last year in Minnesota and if they struggled out of the gate I think that would quickly return.

The Twins were smart (not cheap) to not give Santana a 6 year deal, and I'm not sure he's worth a 5 year deal. His numbers have gone down the last two seasons and he's giving up more homeruns the last couple seasons as well. I'm not saying he isn't great, he is, but he does have some history of minor arm problems and for the Twins to tie up 20-25% of their payroll for the next 6 seasons for him isn't being cheap its being smart.

The Twins just locked up Morneau and Cuddyer and have 3 more years on Mauer. Liriano is supposed to be back to 100%, which if he is, makes this move a little easier to swallow. I don't know too much about the guys the Twins are getting, but Gomez is a solid OF prospect, and hopefully someone they can plug in between Delmon Young and Cuddyer in the outfield. The Twins 3-7 hitters are pretty solid, if Gomez can play solid defense in center and least be average with the bat while stealing some bases I think he'd be a better option that the Twins have now.

Twins scouting has been earned the benefit of the doubt from me, they've made countless moves over the last decade that made me scratch my head at the time but turned into gold (Knoblauch for Milton/Guzman, Pierzynski for Bonser/Nathan/Liriano, Milton for Silva, Buchanon for Bartlett, etc.). By sending Santana out of the AL and hopefully getting a couple guys who will help once the new stadium opens in 2010, I think they did the best they could with the situation.

Right now I'd rather have Ellsbury/Lowrie or Lester/Lowrie or Hughes/Cabrera than Gomez and the 3 pitchers. But like I said, I have faith in the Twins scouting department and reserve judgment for at least a year till we see how they all pan out.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Santana traded to New York

I think if you look at just the return on prospects, the Twins could have done better. Jon Lester could have stepped right in to their rotation and would have come close to winning the 15 games Santana won last year. I think the Twins out played their cards with this. The thought either the Yanks or the Red Sox would eventually lose patience and sell the farm. What they didn't realize was that neither was real interested in investing $120 Mill in a veteran player when they both had excellent young pitching in their system and an already veteran laiden squad with already huge money invested. In the end, the desire to keep him out of the American League probably played a big part as well. I think for Santana it's his best scenario. The NL is the lesser league and his numbers will flourish.

The Twins got to where they are by making good trades of high price (or soon-to-be high priced) vets. Knoblauch comes to mind. Granted Eric Milton and Christian Guzman aren't what you hope the Mets prospects end up becoming, but I think it will work itself out in the end. As a life-long Angels fan, I just wish my team would pull the trigger on a deal. We have too many prospects and no big bat aside from Vladdy.

[jackrabit1]

Re: Santana traded to New York

This may not be over yet. The Mets and Santana have until 5 pm (Eastern) tonight to pound something out or the deal's off.