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Jon Heyman at SI.com provides the latest update on the pursuit of Johan Santana.
He cites a person close to the Mets as saying he “seriously doubts” they’ll part with both OF Carlos Gomez and OF Fernando Martinez in a deal for Santana.
Heyman also writes about the differing views around the league regarding the current offers on the table, saying…
“Some execs from other teams say that any Yankee offer that includes Hughes is the best one, while others favor the Red Sox’s package with Lester. But one National league exec said that the Twins would be better off taking the Mets’ offer, assuming Minnesota can accept the idea of a longer-term rebuilding project after losing centerfielder Torii Hunter to free agency. That exec said that Guerra is a potential gem, a kid with tremendous upside.”
…and this, to me, is why it’s taking so long for a deal to be made…they have several unique offers that would each shape their team differently for the next 5-10 years…the near future of the Twins organization is essentially riding on this trade and the front office can’t afford to screw it up…
…they’re taking their time and praying someone steps up with an offer they can’t refuse so that the decision is easy on them, but that doesn’t seem likely…i’m guardedly optimistic about the Mets chances for various reasons, and as much as i just want the santana deal to be done with, regardless of where he goes, i can’t blame the Twins for taking their sweet time…
zzzzzz
“But one National league exec said that the Twins would be better off taking the Mets’ offer, assuming Minnesota can accept the idea of a longer-term rebuilding project after losing centerfielder Torii Hunter to free agency.”
– Omar Minaya?
Lol. This site should be renamed Johanblog.com
More like every baseball site on the internet. Seriously, there is nothing else being talked about anywhere else. What happened to the hot stove?
i say this as a mets fan this hole thing were its taken for ever to get johan is maken me so mad if its not johan its erik bedard to tell you the truth joe blanton is better then kyle lohse i would right now take anyone like a joe blanton or johan or bedard i really don’t want the mets to get lohse or livan or someone stuip omar got a job to do do you job you like donald trumps say YOUR FIRED
It’s easy to get frustrated because we’re merely on the sidelines, observing. There’s nothing we can do effectuate a personnel change (players OR front office).
But to throw your hands in the air and say Omar needs to drop Johan and just get Joe Blanton is foolish. Billy Beane has stated he will likely enter the season with Blanton IN his starting rotation and deal him in July. What that means is no one is satisfying his thirst for prospects. Omar is still in the Johan sweepstakes for 3 reasons…
1. We DESPERATELY need a bonafide ace to secure our starting rotation.
2. To pass on Johan Santana without exploring every avenue is both foolish and irresponsible as a GM.
3. Billy Beane will ask for MORE than Bill Smith is asking for relative to the value of their pitcher. (reports are Beane wasn’t even satisfied with Carlos Gomez, Aaron Heilman AND Kevin Mulvey.)
Santana:Blanton::Piazza:LoDuca
Extremely tedious and frustrating, but I’m glad to hear both Gomez and Martinez won’t go……
WE NEED SANTANA for a few reasons. After the way 2006 and 2007 ended we need to win. It has gotten in this teams head that they fell short due to pitching, if nothing is done to address that issue we will be watching the Phillies get sweept again in the playoffs. Our team has not improved over last season and with Shea coming down and the new stadium openeing in 2008 we need to have a winning team. And prospects dont win games or championships for you. The shoot in the arm that the team and fan base will get with the signing of Sanatana will ensure that we can sign any player that we need. Are these prospects good, yes, are they superstars, who knows, chances are no. I would rather have a WS ring in 2008 than have a good strong farm system for the next 4 years and no ring. MAKE THE DEAL !!!!!
Gee Jon, your new breaking news is that the Mets do not want to give up both Gomez and Martinez, the OF prospects, for Santana? Really, no kidding? Where have you been the last month, vacationing on Mars?
he was actually in europe!
heyman is a moron
If he was in Europe it means he was closer to Omar than anyone else, so maybe he does have some idea….
This is the only place that Santana to the Mets is such a hot topic. It is never happening. Good for blog hits, but a total sham. Minnesota is not taking the Met prospects. The Mets are simply involved to bid up the Yankees and Red Sox. I appreciate Matt’s hard work here, but he is way off on this one. Santana is not coming to the Mets.
As long as the Mets refuse to part with Fernando Martinez, Smith will have Omar’s fax under a stack of W2 forms. I’ve given up on thinking Omar could land Santana. It’s obvious OMAR has given up trying to land Johan because he refuses to give up both Gomez and Martinez!
More and more that’s exactly how I feel.
I meant to what Ron said
the fact remains: santana puts you in the WS this year, maybe next year too. Neither Gomezz or Martinez are going to do that anytime soon.
I agree with you Ron124, I’ve always found it a red flag that I’ve never found the optimistic news of the Mets being frontrunners for Santana on any major news outlet. I know I’m going to get crushed, but I truly believe that even if the Yanks and Sox were out of the picture the Mets would still find a way out of a trade because Wilpon does not want to meet Johan’s contract demands.
Huge historical collapse and what have the Mets done? Signed Matt Wise and traded away one of their most promising young hitters for a mediocre catcher and outfielder. I’ve held my tongue for awhile believing that the Mets would do SOMETHING this off-season, but pitchers and catchers are a month away and nothing has been accomplished, NOTHING.
Suggestions?
Yes… Give up the 5 prospects for Santana.
But I also think it would be foolish to stop there. The rotation of Santana, Pedro, Maine, Perez, and El Duque looks great on paper, but let’s face it, Pedro and El Duque will both get hurt at some point.
We should plan on moving Duque to the pen and bring in Livan Hernandez to be the fifth starter. This will give the rotation far more durability and protect our pen.
I love O-dog and Johnny, but their high pitch counts killed us last year…. Don’t let it happen again.
OK, but Santana hasn’t moved yet. Livan hasn’t signed yet. My point is not that nothing SHOULD be done, rather it is, what has been done so far that the Mets missed out on? This just happens to be a very, very slow offseason. Can’t blame Omar for that.
It’s his job to make it happen! All he has to do is show Livan the dotted line and he would be the best # 5 in baseball.
So he should sign Livan right now, when he still may get Santana and may have no need for Livan? (Santana, Pedro, Maine, Perez, El Duque). Or sign him now when his price is only falling as it gets closer and closer to spring training? Yea, smart moves there.
I love all the junior GM’s on Metsblog who think they know it all just because they won their fantasy league…
Look at today’s Tribune, Ron124 and wolverine193. Joe Christensen says the Mets are frontrunners whether Minny fans like it or not.
ron124, stop blaming Matt for reporting what is out there.
wolverine, why hold your tongue all this time and then lash out right when the Mets seem to be the frontrunners to the best player in baseball? You sound like someone who still believes that Milledge is one of our most promising young hitters.
Both of you should read the Tribune article if Matt doesn’t post it, which is what he has ben doing — reporting what other sources have printed.
They’re killing me, Morty… Killing me!
More of the same…which is nothing. Nothing new and nothing we have not read before either here or somewhere else.
I am so bored with this whole Santana thing. 5 prospects and 160 million dollar contract. He’s not worth it.
I’d rather have Gomez and Martinez in the Mets outfield in 2009. I couldn’t really care less about the other guys “rumored” in the package.
Matt is relaying what Jon Heyman said, I think its great to keep getting updates since many times the teams talk to each other through the media and I think this has been the case the last two months. on this potential Santana deal.
I do however, believe that Heyman is probably right and Omar is not going to include both Gomez and FMart in the deal together. We are starting to hear that a lot the last two days.
That is a tragic mistake since I still think we can get Santana if he would do that. So he basically pass on this deal because of a 19 year old great talented PROSPECT who won’t be able to help this team win anything for another three years.
Santana will slip slide away and so will the next two years since if Omar can’t pull the trigger now he won’t do it next year either. Pedro won’t last forever and neither will El Duque.
Slip sliding away………….slip sliding away……………..away!
Omar is playing his hand. Yankees doing the same with Kennedy and Sox by saying what they “wont” do. Then eventually one team does what Twins “want” (which really is less than what they want but since the Mets drew a line last week on including F-Mart, including him now is sort of a win for Smith), and it happens. If Omar offered F-Mart now like everyone wants, that would be the deal the Twins would be comparing to the others and they would want something else to put it over the top. It’s a game where drawing the line had to be made and that’s where Omar put it. Now we wait out Smith and as time goes by the Yankees and Sox and Mets will eventually either get their way or be asked one last time to “give in”. Neither has happened yet.
FIRST; Im glad to see rumblings that Omar doesnt want to package Gomez and FMart both in the same deal.
That’s encouraging to me. If you really project FMart to have 30+ HR potential then you really need to hold onto him.
SECONDLY: I’m also glad to see that Livan Hernandez’s name is being mentioned by a few of the posters here. I personally think picking him up and perhaps dotel would be enough to start the season nicely with.
Omar has built the outfield with good depth and with Valentin potentially here as well I assume Damien Easley can spell Delgado as backup and no other real other moves are needed - just go into the spring training with that and take your chances.
Stay in the hunt until the All Star break and if you need more starting pitching (or another relief arm) then deal with it then.
It’s a double edged sword.
You maybe right, in the sense, our prospects might finally start blossoming. Were that to happen their stock would skyrocket and GMs will feel foolish for passing on them now.
But you also have to consider the fact, our prospects might fizzle even further LOWERING their stock even further revisiting the scenario we just saw with Lastings Milledge.
Another thing to consider. The trade market could flip back to a buyer’s market or even further entrench itself into a buyer’s market. For example, if the Twins are in contention of the AL Central, Smith will be hard-pressed by Twins fans to deal him mid-season. Similarly, teams like the Indians, Brewers and others could re-up on Sabathia, Sheets, etc to long-term extensions or if they’re having great seasons, demand even MORE than Smith is now demanding for Johan.
The future is arbitrary. In no way can you say one alternative is better than the other…
So here is what we know:
1 Yankees are only in it to drive up price for the Red Sox
2 Red Sox are only in it to drive up price for the Yankees
3 Mets are only in it to drive up price for BOTH the Yankees and Red Sox!!
Well, it’s NOT working!! Every offer is basically still the same.
I don’t see it that was at all. I think all three teams are grossly underestimating Minnesota’s desperation and think that they will eventually cave and settle for less.
It’s not going to happen. Somebody will flinch. Somebody will throw in something just to get a deal done, then look out.
The differnce in opinions is really if the mets should gamble next year with what they got and mabea livan or sell the farm. im very torn.
For crying out loud, Omar, just add Alex Ochoa, ….I mean FMart to the package and get this thing done already!
Except that doesn’t make it happen, it only makes the price go up for us. Without F-Mart we have the best deal according to the Tribune. If Smith balks we can add F-Mart to make it even more so. Even with F-Mart he prefers Hughes so it’s pointless to throw him in now since Smith is waiting on that anyway.
I know this is going to sound vendictive, but after 10 weeks of this crap I’m so damn annoyed at this point, I just don’t care.
I hope the Twins don’t trade Santana and he suffers an injury that not only destroys the Twins chances of trading him, but also reduces Santana’s free agent market value to next to nothing.
Okay, you can say it. I’m a horrible person.
In this scenario:
1. The Twins get nothing for holding out in the idiotic manner that they have. No major league ready players, no blue chip can’t miss prospects, no compensatory trade picks.
2. Santana gets nothing for being greedy (he did refuse an $80m deal with the Twins) and not pushy enough (all he had to do was go to the Twins and say, “it’s the Mets and it’s now.”
3. The Mets don’t get fleeced.
meant compensatory draft picks…
i’m so damned angry at this situation, i can’t even type.
i’m soooo damn over this garbage.
I am frustrated too Chucky, but give it a couple of weeks, he’ll be with the Mets…….