The economic inequality in baseball was on display once again last week when the Twins were forced to deal ace Johan Santana , who was going to leave town after this season to sign a six- or seven-year contract from a team in a large market. Signing a hurler, even an elite one, to a six-year contract extension worth in excess of $20 million per season simply is not possible for a team like the Twins because pitchers are historically more fragile that hitters and that contract would likely represent over 20% of the Minnesota payroll for at least the next four years. However, instead of landing a gaggle of quality prospects like they had in previous deals for Chuck Knoblauch and A.J. Pierzynski, Minnesota learned the hard way that big-market teams are realizing the value of holding onto their youngsters.
The closest the Twins came to getting full value for Santana was when reports surfaced during the Winter Meetings that the Yankees were offering a package of Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera and at least one other quality prospect, possibly Austin Jackson, who is the team’s No. 2 prospect according to Baseball America. That offer seems like a steal compared to what the Twins got from the Mets, even if the Yankees had ended up insisting the Twins take Jose Tabata or Brett Gardner in lieu of Jackson. The reason I feel this truth is self-evident is because there is less risk involved with Hughes, who has been a blue-chip prospect since being a first-round pick in 2004, and Cabrera, who already has 1,024 major league at-bats under his belt. Add in another high-end prospect and it becomes clear the package the Yankees offered was the best the Twins could have netted for Santana.
Boston was the other team to offer the Twins an attractive group of players in return for Johan. The Red Sox reportedly offered shortstop Jed Lowrie and pitcher Justin Masterson to Minnesota along with (a) Jacoby Ellsbury or (b) Jon Lester and Coco Crisp. I’m on record as saying the Lester/Ellsbury package didn’t offer enough long-term upside, but I really liked what was cooking with the Ellsbury deal. The Twins would get a blue-chipper in center field, as opposed to a blue-chip prospect on the mound in the Yankee deal, and prospect that could potentially fill needs in the rotation and at shortstop. Even if Masterson ends up in the bullpen as a major leaguer, he would have been a welcomed member of the Twins pitching staff. Lowrie’s glove needs some work and he may be a third baseman in the bigs, but it just so happens the Twins have a long-term spot to fill at the hot corner, as well.
Instead a deal was done with the Mets that brought no blue-chippers to Minnesota, which is inexcusable in a trade that saw the best pitcher in baseball leave town. Aaron Gleeman does a great job of covering the Twins in his blog, so I’ll like you to his analysis of the four Mets the Twins got in return. In my opinion, the four players the Mets sent to the Twins all should be major leaguers before everything is said and done. In fact, Carlos Gomez and Deolis Guerra have All-Star potential, although both figure to be years away from reaching it.
Reports are that both the Yankees and Red Sox pulled or lessened their offers for Santana after the Winter Meetings. If that is true, I actually have a harder time blaming Bill Smith for accepting this deal because it is the best of what is left. There really is no logical reason that a deal for Santana should be any less in January than it was in December. In fact, he had reason to believe those offers might have actually been improved when the Mets entered the picture as serious bidders. Then Smith had the rug pulled out from under him again when Johan forced the trade to be completed when it was by threatening to invoke his no-trade clause. The end result is the worst deal any of the three teams were offering.
If you think Mets fans aren’t wetting themselves with excitement over landing Santana, check out “The Johan Santana Song” that can be found on Mets Blog .
Posted by poochreport 