Now that I’m working for the Twins, it’s hard for me to offer opinions about the recent Santana for prospects deal, and most have already been said more articulately and forcefully than I can say them already.  However, when words like ’steal’ and ‘panic’ are bandied about, you get the general sense of how the deal is being received. For a lively discussion on the matter I recommend the discussion thread at Aaron Gleeman’s site, where you can get the (mostly) negative but articulate reactions towards the trade by Twins fans.  Not all fans disliked the trade, it should be pointed out.  But most did.   Regardless of whether or not the deal pans out long term, Johan will be missed greatly by the team and fans.  Losing the best pitcher in baseball from your team just doesn’t feel great no matter what comes in return.

My personal favorite highlight of Santana’s Twins career was when he blanked the Yankees in game one of the 2004 Division Series, a series the Twins would of course go on to lose.  However, I called the shutout, much to the initial amusement and later the chagrin of a lot of Yanks fans in the Yankee stadium bleachers around me.   Even my buddy Juice, who conveniently forgot his Sox hat on that day to the park, mocked me when I said one run was all we needed. Thanks for that one, Johan.

The majority of gripes trade-wise center around the arguments that the Twins overplayed their hand in negotiating, waited too long to pull the trigger after seemingly walking a bit too carelessly into a deal with Tampa, didn’t end up with any immediately major league ready talent in the deal such as Ellsbury, Lester, Cabrera, or Hughes, and probably took less talent from the Mets in order to ensure they didn’t have to face Santana as an opponent for the next 5 years.  Another commentator remarked, possibly astutely, that if the Twins were going to start unloading talent they should have done so as early as last year as soon as it became clear the club wasn’t going to contend. 

Of course, if any of the prospects in the deal from the Mets end up exceeding expectations for the Twins, hindsight will be 20/20 and Bill Smith will have had the last laugh.  To be fair to the Twins and their brass, no offer really offered true value for a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher like Santana, and there was major time pressure on him to get a deal accomplished.  The Terry Ryan era Twins certainly pulled off some heists of their own, notably the Liriano/Nathan/Bonser for A.J. great heist of Brian Sabean.  (Note to Bill Smith: Rectify situation by calling Brian Sabean.  Offer him Nick Punto, Rondell White, and any 28+ year old position players in the Twins organization for Lincecum).  

The bigger picture of this whole issue though is how much the trade, the potential suitors, and the haul involved for both teams are indicative of the vast imbalance in baseball economically, and how at this point it simply makes the game less enjoyable when the top economic tier of clubs are a virtual lock to land almost any big name free agents.  It just makes the game less fun, at least in my naive quasi-socialist opinon.  Whether you think this is wrong, fine, an iredeemable problem, something that could be rememedied with a salary cap, etc., I’d like to get readers’ opinions on this.  I get equally vexed with oversimplified Yankee/big club bashing as I do with the utter unfettered money orgy contest among the major powers.  It would certainly be nice to see more parity, but how?