It is almost final—Johan Santana in a New York Met’s uniform. Give Omar Minaya credit, who for a while, may have been the only to believe that Santana could land in Queens. Yes Santana has to pass a physical and yes, the Mets need to work out an extension with Santana over the next few days, but it looks like Johan Santana will be pitching for the Mets.
It is amazing how this one deal changes the balance in the NL East and makes the Mets the clear favorites. I think the Mets should now look to sign Livan Hernandez. With Santana a done deal, signing Livan Hernandez looks good, as opposed to looking like it is a last ditch effort. A rotation of Johan, Pedro, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Livan Hernandez, with El Duque in the bullpen and ready to fill in if a pitcher goes down, and Mike Pelfrey (not used to acquire Santana), doing a full year in AAA and then coming up to the team next year, is huge.
First Santana is the ace the Mets needed. Then, with Pedro coming back from injury and having another pitcher at the top, it should allow him to truly be effective. Maine and Perez than get a chance to develop without being looked at as the top pitchers on the staff, and Hernandez, if nothing else, eats innings for you.
The fact that they got Santana truly helps out in a number of different areas. And, while I am sorry to see Carlos Gomez go (although of course you have to give up good players or top prospects to get a Johan Santana), the fact that they were able to keep Pelfrey (who of the young pitchers has the most major league experience) and Fernando Martinez, is amazing.
It feels good to beat out the Yankees and the Redsox and obtain the biggest prize of the offseason. With this one move, I have become excited about the start of the season again.
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Nice of you to join us, Omar. What's not to love about this deal? The Mets get one of the best if not THE best pitcher in baseball and give up nobody that was going to contribute next year or possibly even the year after that. Sure, it stinks to give up young talent, but you've got to give to get. Plus, young talent doesn't necessarily turn into productive major league talent (see Milledge, Lastings, or Leary, Tim). The cost is still high, I predict his contract will be close to 150M over its life, but that is the going rate. Even at that high number I'd rather have Santana than Zito because Zito looks to be diminishing while Santana still looks strong. Factor in his age and we should have a dominant pitcher for the next several years. Our staff looks a whole lot stronger with Johan leading rather than Pedro, who as a no. 2 or 3 should post some nice numbers.
Texmet out
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