No, really ... can I leave my house without fear of any Johan Santana fallout falling straight on the top of my head?Twenty-four hours ago, there was lots of talk that the Mets had grabbed the lead in the Johan sweepstakes, with the (not so) mere inclusion of Fernando Martinez being the only barrier between Santana and a black and orange alternate uniform. I'll admit that I let myself get excited ... only a little bit, despite the fact that I swore I wouldn't let that happen. But you know it's January, and I have little else to do besides daydream ... so can you blame me for having impure left-handed thoughts?
But as you have probably figured out by now, the Mets have bowed out of the Santana derby at this time ... refusing to put Fernando Martinez in a deal. The Mets here, to me, are trying to have their cake and eat it too. The reasoning is sound. With the Yankees bowing out just a day earlier, and nobody having heard from the Red Sox in a month and a half, the Mets are trying not to overbid against themselves and are probably thinking "wait a minute, if nobody else is in, then why are we trying to outbid them by a larger margin than we have to in terms of players?
But here's the other side of it: The Yankees may say they're out. But are they every really out? Are the Red Sox still lurking around somewhere? So to putter around and try to scale back the offer, or force the Twins hand into taking an offer without Martinez (or Reyes), might be a dangerous strategy. Of course the highly cynical view would be to say that the Mets now have their excuse for not making a deal ... that they can come out and say that "hey, we've made our pitch, and we'll let Martinez be a deal breaker, exhale, and go about the business of selling out Shea for 2008 and Citi Field for 2009 while trotting out an okay team.
My gut is telling me that the cynical view isn't in play here. My gut tells me that the Mets interest in Santana, at this point, is legitimate, and that the brass is merely trying to be smart and keep the price down.
Then again, my gut was telling me "miniature hot dogs" too last night. And what did I get for listening to my gut? Indigestion. So take it for what it's worth.
3 comments:
Um the Mets have not bowed out. The Mets have just declined to give them Martinez in addition to Gomez,Guerra,Mulvey,Humber .. and rightfully so.
I was reading with interest the Daily News article you linked to, all about the machinations involved in the Santana trade, then I got to the end and read the addendum, oh by the way, Omar isn't actually on this continent right now, working on the trade,
he is in ISRAEL.
Halfway across the world, in a completely different time zone. How could that be? That makes me think the Mets are not seriously trying to get Johan.
He does have the cellular. and the internet. as Metsblog pointed out, he's in Israel, not on Jupiter.
Probably spending lots of downtime in the Sheraton Jerusalem with plenty of time on his hands to call his counterpart in Minnesota.
My problem isn't the time zone, its that he's trying to solve the Israeli/Palestinian situation at the same time he's trying to solve the Johan Santana issue.
Perhaps two hopeless causes are too much for one trip halfway around the world.
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