Obligatory Santana Article

So I know you are all dying to know what we here at SP think of the Santana trade. I can only speak for myself, but I\’m way past that. I\’m more upset that a baseball world exists where a player\’s union would be against a guy taking a 5 year 100 million dollar extension with his own team just because some other hasbeen who has 2 winning seasons in the past 4 years gets a 7 year 126 million dollar deal; and the first guy (who is better and younger than that second guy) is obligated to go out and get more money or he\’ll get a stern talking to by the union.

That\’s what I\’m outraged about.

If you want an indepth review on the value the twins received for Santana, go see Aaron Gleeman. I do think that the Twins could have and should have gotten a little more for Santana, but when cooler heads prevailed amongst the suitors and they realized that they all they were really getting is exclusive rights to negotiate with Santana for 2008-?. If it\’s true the Twins offerend Santana 5/100, then I\’m very comfortable with trading him, and I\’m comfortable with what they got in return. Others may be angry, and if you are, don\’t focus it on Billy Smith… look to the oldest and richest owner in baseball.

Here\’s an article from Jayson Stark that\’s more to the point. Another article written before this one by Shecky Souhan provides a rebuttal to some of the pro-Twins argument in Stark\’s column (and yes, it pains me to agree with Souhan). With the talent Cleveland has and the talent Detroit just bought, I don\’t see the Twins competing until 2010. They could have cobbled a team together (letting hunter go, keeping Santana, grabbing a couple of bats), but even then it would have taken a lot of good luck to win the AL Central.

Although it\’s not going to be all that fun for the next two years, the Twins made the right decision in letting a financial timebomb like Santana go. Santana at 20 million in 2008 and 2009 – ok deal. Santana at 20 million in 2013 – not a good deal. Sending him to the NL was the best move unless the Red Sox and Yankees were willing to overpay for Santana (which they weren\’t). Get him out of the AL and look, not to rebuild, but to use this year and next as time to fine tune the skills of your existing team (Mauer and Morneau need to mature, Cuddyer needs to figure out if he\’s for real, is Liriano the next Santana) and fold in the new guys (Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez, and a ton of pitchers).

What will always stick in my craw is what Souhan touches on. If the Twins had been willing to spend a bit more with picking up \”real\” talent in 2002-2005, could this team be coming off of a World Series appearance (or even a Championship) and paring down until 2010… making the next two years much more palatable?

The world will never know…


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3 responses to “Obligatory Santana Article”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    First of all, as a Boston fan, I admit I’m ecstatic Santana went to the National League (and thankfully not in the Bronx). While I would love to have another pitcher of Santana’s caliber in Boston, I’m quite happy to keep both Lester and Ellsbury while not dishing out $20 million-plus for 6 years. In general, it’s a bad idea to sign a pitcher for that much money for that many years when one pitch could turn him from Cy Young into Kevin Millwood. The Sox made the right decision in not giving into Pedro’s demands and they made the same good decision in only going 3 years plus an option on Beckett (who they got for a steal at $42 million for the 4 years). The Twins made the right decision here as well, especially if he turned down 5 years. I don’t blame Billy Smith at all.

    But the Twins do have that little problem of having an owner who is only in it for the business. They’ve been receiving over $20 million in revenue sharing every year (paid mostly by the Sox and Yankees), yet their payroll has not increased by that amount. And from what I’ve read, Pohlad’s sons are running the team for the most part now, which could be bad news for Twins fans. If they’re like their daddy, I’m not sure you should expect things to change too much. Will they really increase their payroll proportionately when the new stadium opens?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/sports/baseball/29chass.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    The Rockies had a $16 million revenue sharing payment and put almost all of it into their payroll. This is a problem that needs to be rectified in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. MLB needs to force revenue sharing recipients to put that money into the product on the field, rather than just “encouraging it”. Did you know Boston’s operating income in 2006 was only $5 million more than the Twins? Pohlad shouldn’t be allowed to pocket any of the money he gets from MLB.

    Now on the bright side, C.C. Sabathia is a free agent after 2008. If he has another year like last year, I wouldn’t expect Cleveland to be able to re-sign him so that might make the AL Central a little easier.

  2. alex Avatar

    I’m gonna have to be brief, but I’ll put up a mini-response:
    A) I don’t know what “real help” there was to be had in prior years. Can you even name a free agent 3B that’s been great enough to make a difference over that span? LF has been a black hole too, but that’s just one bat. The Twins had the pitching to win it, had Liriano not gone down in 06. Them’s just the breaks.
    B) I agree that if Santana turned down 5/100, so be it. I heard there was a rumor that they might have gone to six years. I think that for once the Twins may have made a decent offer. Not record-breaking, mind you, but good enough. If Johan wanted to take the huge deal and pitch in NYC, then I wish him well.
    C) I also heard that, for example, Phil Hughes was only in an offer from the Yanks for like two days. So while it’s possible that BS could have gotten more talent, it’s hard to say that for a certainty. Besides, all it takes is for one or two of these guys to become the next Nathan or Liriano, and we’ll all start to see things differently.
    D) Call me a damn optimist if you must, but take a quick sneak peek at the middle of the order for next year: Mauer, Young, Morneau, Cuddyer, Kubel. That lineup will hit. Give some young pitchers a chance (and cross your fingers that F-Bomb comes back strong) and let’s see how it goes. I don’t think it’ll be particularly awful, at the very least.

  3. anderswa Avatar

    i, also, don’t have a problem with the deal. we could have got more, maybe. but i don’t blame BS for holding out– who knew the yankees were able to show constraint? i *do* blame terry ryan a bit for not trying to lock johan (and torii) into extensions before now– if you believe what you read, both were open to discussions last year but weren’t granted an audience with TR. and while i wish that the twins hadn’t spent $ on stiffs like fatista, ro white, and ponson– like al– i don’t really know who else was out there (and fit within the budget.) this team is being built for 2010. i guess i don’t have a big problem with that.

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