Looks like the Mets got their man:
The deal is pending the Mets and Santana reaching agreement on a six- or seven-year contract extension and that Santana passes a physical; they have been granted a 48 to-72-hour window to do so. Santana has a no-trade clause that he will waive if agreement is reached on a contract extension.
The Mets paid a high price in prospects to land Santana, agreeing to send the Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey.
What I mostly feel right now is anger: not at the Mets, for leveraging their financial advantage to do right by their fans and players, but at the Twins for being such goddamn cheapskates and pushovers, and at the Phillies for not summoning up the aggressiveness or creativity needed to block or counter a move like this.
First, the Twins. After weighing offers led by superior prospects like Phil Hughes and Jon Lester, they've evidently acceded to a package that's almost certainly less than what the Orioles reportedly are weighing for Erik Bedard, and maybe less than what Oakland got for Danny Haren. If they'd held onto Santana, they would have had a legit shot in the very tough AL East; they're also owned by a billionaire coming up on his 90th birthday, and have a new stadium on the way.
Then the Phils. This is a tougher case, but I'm not sure they couldn't have put together an offer as good as the Mets', and at the least they might have gotten in on a three-way deal to sweeten a competitor's bid for Santana. But between our mostly-retired GM and his cheap, lazy bosses who are MLB ownership's equivalent of The Pony Set, it was never to be.
So while New York wipes away a miserable end of 2007--and, mark my words, will quickly reload their system with above-slot signing bonuses in the draft and top dollar for foreign amateur talent--we'll be reduced to hoping that Jamie Moyer keeps it together, and Adam Eaton bounces back from cover-your-eyes to sub-mediocre, and a Durbin to be first-named later comes through with league-average relief innings, and freakin' Pedro Feliz can nose his on-base percentage above .300.