Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 05, 2008
Santana Talks

La Velle Neal catches up with Johan Santana. It seems a lot of rumors about the negotiations were just those, rumors:

"It's kind of hard to believe," Santana said during a phone conversation from his home in Fort Myers, Fla. "I was hoping I would get something done with the Twins, but it didn't happen. I know I'm going to a team that will give me a chance to win.

"From the beginning I told people, when I talk to [the Twins], I didn't have any team in mind. They narrowed it down and they got to the Mets and I said that would be cool. It would be a new experience for me and I will be up to that challenge. At the end, I was hoping Minnesota would get the best deal available."

I disagree with this:

On Wednesday, the star lefthander will be introduced as the newest member of the New York Mets. He will be armed with a six-year, $137.5 million contract, making the Twins' four-year, $80 million extension offer look extremely inadequate -- but not inadequate enough to have Santana complaining on his way to the Big Apple.

The offer was not extremely inadequate. It's $20 million a year vs. $23 million a year. And if Johan believes he can be productive for six years, he'd get a bigger payday when his four year run with the Twins was over and he hit free agency. Let's face it, the Twins offer would make him the highest paid pitcher in the game. That wasn't good enough. He wanted the largest total value, too.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:36 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Well, he's getting an extra 70% or so with the Mets offer over the Twins offer. I'd say that's pretty significant. Perhaps Johan is well aware that there is a good chance he is injured at some point in the next 4 years and won't have another opportunity at a contract like this.

Posted by: Boomer at February 5, 2008 12:24 PM

If there is a good chance that Santana will be injured, why would the Mets sign him for six years?

Posted by: David Pinto at February 5, 2008 12:30 PM

There's a "good" chance that any given pitcher will suffer an injury or steep decline over a period of four years; Santana is aware of that and is hedging against it.

Posted by: stoneyforest at February 5, 2008 12:35 PM

The did it with a past his prime Pedro, why not do it with an in his prime Santana?

Posted by: bfriley76 at February 5, 2008 01:27 PM
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