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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Minnesota Twins might yet decide to keep ace Johan Santana. At least, for the very near future. As general manager Bill Smith reminded Monday, "The beauty is, Johan Santana is signed for '08."
Now, don't misunderstand. The Twins are still expected to deal their prize lefty as a pre-emptive measure against losing him to free-agency for nothing but a couple of draft picks a year from now.
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| Johan may be going nowhere if there's not a deal sweet enough. (Getty Images) |
And if Boston isn't serious about much else than boxing out the Yankees -- and the Red Sox's moving target of offerings that include outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury but not Jon Lester, or Lester but not Ellsbury, or one of those two but not Clay Buchholz point toward a team more interested in making sure the Yankees don't acquire Santana than a team intent on adding him itself -- and the Twins wind up losing some leverage, well, then. ...
Keeping Santana wouldn't exactly be the stupidest thing in the world.
All along, Smith, Minnesota's rookie GM, has maintained that the option to keep Santana if he can't obtain a star-quality package in return is very real.
The Twins remain confident that Francisco Liriano will be back in 2008 after missing all of last season following elbow surgery and, even after losing free agent Torii Hunter, a Santana-Liriano one-two combination atop the rotation would keep the Twins competitive in a rugged AL Central.
Steinbrenner delivered a public lecture to the Twins on Sunday that the time to move was now, that the Yankees were serious and that the high and mighty Pinstripers weren't about to be used as leverage. If Minnesota was planning to play the Yanks against the Red Sox for any period of time, Steinbrenner said, forget it.
Well, aside from clearly tampering by talking directly to Santana through reporters -- and the commissioner's office should levy an appropriate fine, or just scratch all tampering rules from the books -- and as much as the Yankees think the baseball world revolves around them, last we checked, Santana belongs to the Twins this winter and for all of 2008.
How they intend to proceed is up to them. Other organizations actually attempt to better themselves and position themselves to win, too. The Yankees don't always realize this.
And the betting here is that, in weighing the option to keep Santana, the Twins are bluffing less than the Yankees, who initially refused to include right-hander Phil Hughes in a deal and who recently and condescendingly delivered a Monday night deadline to the Twins if they desired the Yankees as a trading partner.
The Yankees, you might recall, are the guys who said they were done with Alex Rodriguez when he opted out of his contract. Then they kissed and made up and committed $300 million to him. Some ultimatum.
Minnesota already has acquired outfielder Delmon Young from Tampa Bay, which will partly cover the gap opened with Hunter's departure. The Twins still have 2006 Most Valuable Player Justin Morneau, former batting champion Joe Mauer and slugger Michael Cuddyer in their lineup.
