News: Mets Acquire Santana from Twins

The Mets have traded for LHP Johan Santana from the Twins in exchange for four prospects, though the deal will only be official once a contract extension is agreed upon.

…from what i can gather, names of players will not officially be made public until a contract extension can be worked out…the Mets have 72 hours to work out an extension with santana and his agents, which started earlier this afternoon…

…Update…4:50 pm…

…after having talked with a few people connected to the team and the player, from what i can gather, though the Mets have yet to confirm the deal, a) everything in the USA Today report (see below) is accurate, including the players who are mentioned, and b) it should not be very difficult to reach a contract extension within the 72 hours, though this becoming public will certainly add pressure to get a deal done…

…also, from what i can tell, this deal never came down to whether or not the Mets would add Fernando Martinez…it was more about major-league ready talent, than it was ever about additional minor leaguers…but i am sure more on that will become public in the days ahead…

…what’s more, it appears that santana essentially gave the Twins an ultimatum…which is great to hear, since he had the ability to force the issue all along…

…Update…4:17 pm…

According to USA Today, the deal will include Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey.

…man, if the USA Today addition ends up being correct, and i have reason to believe that it is, and the Mets pull this off without giving up Fernando Martinez and Mike Pelfrey, well, wow…

…USA Today reports it as a 48– to 72–hour window, but i’ve been told it’s 72…and with the way this process took, i would not be shocked if it took the full time frame…

…Update…4:28 pm…

…jeez, what took you so long, omar…

…well, as i had been saying, for me, this deal had to be done, if for no other reason than it is becoming harder and harder to acquire an ace on the open market…so, if one became available by trade, who was attainable, the trigger had to be pulled…especially if he comes at the cost of three pitchers, who the Mets believe will not be as good as santana during the next few years…

…and so, they pulled the trigger to create a 2008 rotation of Pedro Martinez, followed by Johan Santana, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Orlando Hernandez…

…with a healthy pedro, and maine and perez having learned from last year’s long season, and johan switching to a pitcher’s park in the national league, i am more than happy with this starting rotation and believe it is more than capable of helping to lead this team to the playoffs…

…what’s more, considering what the Mets had to part with to get santana, they can still lean on pelfrey should an injury strike…

…by the way, the best part of this is that all of the reporters, fans, talk-show hosts and critics, who convinced themselves that the Mets had no chance to get santana, now must spend the next few weeks cleaning egg from their face…

…that said, i’d like to give special thanks to La Velle E. ‘The Real Deal’ Neal III from the Star-Tribune and Jon Heyman from SI.com, both of whom kept on this story like white to rice, and did an outstanding job every step of the way…i’d like to think i was fairly accurate as well, while always writing and believing that the Mets had a chance, despite what others kept telling me…well done, gentlemen…and thanks for all of your hard work…

…now, let’s work out that contract extension, guys…