Note: Minnesota’s View of Santana Trade
Leslie Monteiro, in a post to her blog Twins Killings, feels that the trade that sent Johan Santana to the Mets in exchange for Carlos Gomez, Delois Guerra, Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey was a bust for the Twins.
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..it’s hard to argue with that sentiment because they now have no players at the major league level on the field for them at this point but the fact of the matter is that with Gomez playing center field for them in 2009, the Twins rallied to win the American League Central and made the playoffs, whereas the Mets are still awaiting their playoff berth with Santana on their team…not that Santana hasn’t done his part, but so far, the Mets have not been able to maximize the benefits from making the trade, whereas the Twins might have with Gomez in that they did make the playoffs with him…
…i still think that this was an excellent maneuver by Omar Minaya, in that he was able to convince the Twins to take this package of players while still retaining their top prospects at the time, and i never thought Gomez in particular would have been as good at what he does as Santana is at what he does, so i felt that made him expendable…also, the Twins had to have known they were settling for a second tier package for Santana because they poorly maneuvered their side of the trade with the Yankees and Red Sox, driving the price down when those two clubs decided not to trade their package of prospects…
Monteiro says that by trading Gomez to the Brewers for J.J. Hardy, it’s “addition by subtraction”, and she also says that Gomez acted like he knew more about the game than Twins first base coach Jerry White.
…i really don’t know what Gomez will ever amount too, and if this is accurate, his attitude needs major adjustment if he wants to succeed at the Major League Level, but his speed is so hard to ignore…i always prefer overall athleticism over a player who is just good at a couple of things because i feel that if a player is athletic, he has a better chance of maximizing those talents, and while Gomez has lacked plate discipline and has made mistakes on the bases and didn’t have a good season in 2009, he is still just 23…
For more on Gomez and his tenure with the Twins, check out Leslie’s post here.
