Santana deal impacts Sabathia's future
Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:51 AM
Johan Santana to the Mets. It's done. There are no hurdles left to clear. Santana got his mega deal ($137.5 million over six years), and he passed his physical. After a press conference in New York today, it's on to spring training and on to a new era in his career -- one that he is anticipating as much if not more than the legions of Mets fans, who until last week had an ill feeling about their team's offseason. Ill as in nil or nothing at all, which prior to the acquisition of the two-time Cy Young winner were the terms that could have been used to describe Mets general manager Omar Minaya's winter pursuit of a No. 1 starter for his team's rotation.
It’s natural to post a report card on such a prominent trade as the Santana deal, and most score this a huge win for the Mets. Savvy baseball people understand the handcuffs placed on the Twins' new general manager Bill Smith. They also understand how hard it is when your first task on the job is trading a pitcher of ultra elite status.
My final take on this deal reflects how the baseball world has changed. No longer will the Yankees or Red Sox automatically pant after every free-agent star (they may do that for many of the players of this ilk, but no longer for all of them). The Twins have made trades the likes of the Santana deal before and with good results (see their trades for Frank Viola in 1989 and Chuck Knoblauch in 1998). Smith and many of the Twins' baseball people were on the job for those deals and so their judgment on making the Santana deal must be given time before it can be justly judged.
Barry Zito’s mind-blowing contract last winter with the Giants ($126 million over seven years) doomed Santana’s future with the Twins. No way Minnesota could come near the dollars the Giants threw Zito's way. Now the dominoes may next fall in Cleveland where C.C. Sabathia enters his walk year. While Sabathia can’t quite match Santana’s achievements, he has blown past Zito, and the money range between Zito and Santana may be too much for Cleveland to deal with. Wonder if Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein were considering that possibility when they both ended up passing on Santana.
There's another top-notch pitcher who could join Santana in finding a new home for 2008. Eric Bedard of the Orioles could very well be headed for Seattle in a deal built around some high-level Mariners' prospects, the crown jewel of which is Adam Jones. All of baseball hoped that Baltimore would do business in a different way with Andy MacPhail in charge. But one trait that hasn’t changed is the Orioles don’t move quickly. Remember, their owner Peter Angelos is a litigator. He was the first owner to aggressively push pre-trade or pre-signing physicals -- and that scared Will Clark out of signing with Baltimore in 1994. But scouts and evaluators seem to agree that this deal -- should it go through -- is a big winner for Baltimore. MacPhail is remaking the Orioles around pitching and defense. If this proposed trade comes off, it's a terrific launch in McPhail's desired direction.
Switching topics to umpires, I saw the New York Times story over the weekend about chapel services encroaching the umpires’ room and causing uncomfortable moments for non-participants of the Christian faith. A valid issue, and it triggered a recollection of a recent talk with major league umpire Ted Barrett. Only two major league umpires are gone for 2008 -- one retired and the other went on a medical disability.
Their replacements are two umpires returning from the botched umpires-MLB labor dispute of 1999. What Barrett told me is that two umpires, who have over 1,000 games of major league experience, Chris Guccione and Rob Drake, still haven't been hired on a full-time basis. This lack of turnover has to be a concern to Major League Baseball. There needs to be a pipeline of young umpiring talent which has legitimate hope of reaching the big leagues.
