The blog formerly about a daily dose of mostly Minnesota sports rants and raves with a sprinkling of general sports commentary and a pinch of jaded-malaise regarding the world around us

November 23, 2007

In case Hunter's leaving did not have you down enough...

Here is what the Twins are asking for Santana (from the ever obscure source Jason Stark on espn.com, not that you couldn't have found this on your own):

SANTANA-MANIAThe Twins played it cool on the Santana front for a while, as they explored what it would take to re-sign their ace. But now, there are rumblings that they're beginning to zone in on interested clubs and exchange lists of players.
The price: either three or four big-time young players, at least two of whom the Twins could plug into their big league mix on Opening Day 2008.
There isn't a team on earth, from the Yankees to the Chunichi Dragons, that wouldn't be interested in Santana. But the list of clubs that conceivably could meet that price would have to start with the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.
The Mets seem prepared to talk about the likes of Fernando Martinez, Mike Pelfrey and possibly even Carlos Gomez if the grand prize is Santana. And the Yankees would be so hot in pursuit, they'd be likely to discuss anyone but Joba Chamberlain.
There have been indications that the Red Sox might be willing to trade one, but not more than one, of their three studs -- Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester. And the Dodgers would at least have to do some serious mulling about whether to give up one of baseball's best pitching prospects, 19-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw.
The trouble is, those four players wouldn't be all it would take.
Any team that would give up that kind of young talent for Santana would want to sign him to an extension, too. And the latest rumor is that he's looking for seven years, at $18-20 million a year, on top of the $13.25 million he has coming in 2008.
So that's another $140-160 million that the winner of this sweepstakes would have to fork over, plus the best players its system has to offer. Yikes.
When you add up all that, it's safe to eliminate, say, the Pirates and Royals -- not that Santana's total no-trade rights wouldn't have done that, anyway. What isn't safe is naming a favorite here. But one NL executive says: Watch out for the Mets, given the pressure on GM Omar Minaya to win now.
"Omar seems determined to make a huge splash," the exec says. "And I think that's the guy they've had earmarked all along."

Full article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3121887&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

1 Comments:

Blogger BG said...

Good stuff...thanks for posting, chuck. Saves me from surfing ESPN's baseball page.

I'm glad we're asking for the world...why not! People seem willing to pay. Dodgers or Mets would be awesome...just to get him out of the American League.

November 23, 2007 at 6:36 PM

 

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