A Minaya Special
Posted by Hasan H, January 30, 2008 - 3:54 pm
The Mets will acquire Johan Santana from the Twins in exchange for four prospects.
Yes! Finally, the #1 Most Annoying Sports Story has met its end and what a sweet end it is! The baseball world remains in a state of shock but Mets fans, wherever they are, woke up this morning with broad smiles on their faces. Omar Minaya has struck again. And this after every so-called expert, writer, blogger and beat reporter wrote off the Mets as a possible contender for the 29 year old two-time Cy Young-winning Super Duper Mega Flame-throwing Bundle of Pitching Awesomeness. 
As always for the big media dudes, it was going to be between the Yankees and the Red Sox. The Mets weren’t even supposed to be in the same conversation. Fuck, you could hear the sadness in Peter Gammons’ voice as he broke down the trade on SportsCenter last night. But Mets fans believed. Because we had Omar. Omar always comes through. He came through with Pedro. And the Carloses, with Ollie Perez and once again, when you thought he couldn’t possibly do it again, all he does is go out and acquire the best pitcher alive.
Now. All giddiness aside, I understand it is too soon to tell who “won out” on this deal. But one thing is certain: even if the Mets get three good years out of Santana, this trade would be a slam dunk in my eyes. To be able to acquire the best pitcher in the game for a quartet of second rate prospects is nothing short of a miracle. Every Met fan knows the organization always over-hypes their prospects. These guys that Minaya traded to the Twins? Trust me, they are decidedly second rate.
Minaya didn’t trade Mike Pelfrey, the Mets’ best pitching prospect or Fernando Martinez, their best hitting prospect (Pelfrey, 24, pitched with the Mets last year and is projected to be a No. 2/3 starter. The 18 year old Martinez is expected to start the year in Triple A but can hit the major leagues this year and is projected to be a 30 HR guy within just two years).
Now let’s take a look at the guys the Twins did get. 25 year old Philip Humber only projects as a No. 5 starter after having had Tommy John surgery in 2005. Kevin Mulvey is a second round pick and a back-end-of-the-rotation guy, and Deolis Guerra is still in A-Ball. Carlos Gomez, 22 is the centerpiece of this deal. He made a quick ascent through the Mets minor league system over the past couple of years and will be a good-but-not-great player. This package is nowhere near the deals offered by the Red Sox and the Yankees. Jacoby Ellsbury, John Lester, Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes were just some of the names being thrown around late last year.
So not only did the Mets hang on to their best two prospects, they were also able to retain both Jose Reyes and Aaron Heilman, who the Twins had repeatedly asked for.
Omar is THE MAN!
He knew he couldn’t compete with talent. But if there is one thing the Mets have an abundance of, it is money. And that’s the only thing they stand to lose in this deal, even if the worst kind of injuries befall Santana (God forbid, knock on woood, yada yada yada). But for now and the next ten years or so, they will pay him. And they will pay him well. They will pay him more than Josh Beckett, Erik Bedard or even Barry Zito. Who by the way looks like a great pass by the Mets now. Had they signed Zito, even with their deep pockets, there is no way Freddie Coupon would have approved the Santana deal. But Omar knew what he was doing all along.
The bottom-line is that the Mets cannot lose on this deal. Of course as I type this, I can totally be jinxing us right now and the future is being altered Heroes-style with Deolis Guerra winning multiple Cy Youngs for the Twins… OK I am going to stop right thurr.
Today is a great day to be a Mets fan. As Stevie Somers would say: “It’s good to be king.”
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