I want Johan Santana in Yankee Pinstripes for Christmas this year!
The Minnesota Twins left-handed ace Johan Santana is the hottest available pitcher on the trade market this off-season. Johan has developed into arguably the best pitcher in the American League and is most certainly among the top ten. In eight major league seasons Santana has 93 career wins. In each of the last four years Johan has over 200 strikeouts in over 200 innings pitched. His lifetime ERA is 3.22, which is a great triumph in modern day American League baseball. He is the ace of the Twins staff, the most crucial member of the Minnesota pitching rotation.
I have a photograph that hangs on the backside of my apartment’s front door. The photograph is of New York Yankees Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, and Melky Cabrera. They are all gathered in the dugout of Tropicana field in Tampa Florida, wearing thier gray road Jerseys as they pose. Chamberlain is crouched forward, while squatting on the backrest of the dugout bench. Cabrera stands to Joba’s right with a bat hanging like a cross behind is neck, while both or his hands wrap around each end of the lumber. On Joba’s left are Cano and Huges. Cano holds a bat similar to Melky while Hughes is smiling and looking at the camera. The photograph is titled “Baby Bombers”. I often stare at the photo while thinking about pending Yankee games in seasons to come. With great hope and excitement, future Yankee victories race through my mind when thinking about these four special rookies.
Yet over the last several weeks I have been waking up and dreading my daily routine of checking the New York newspapers. Frightened that I will turn on my computer to read of how one (or more) of my “Baby Bombers” has been traded to Minnesota. Dreading that the Yankees will have abandoned their principals and compromised the future in an effort to get John Santana from the Twins. Now although the result of such a move will accomplish the goal from my very first sentence of this blog, it would still greatly upset me!
Upset me because parting with tomorrow’s prospects for a chance at winning today is an uncertain variable. Of course if Santana leads the 2008 Yankees to the World Series, then all the “Baby Bombers” in the world can play in Minneapolis for all I care. However if next season Phil Hughes or Jaba Chamberlain win 23 games with the Twins, while Johan Santana rehabs in August from the Yankees disabled list, while the Red Sox are in first place, well then all hell will have broken lose in the Bronx.
Of course in a perfect world Cano would be at second base, Hughes and Chamberlain would be in the starting rotation, Cabrera would be navigating centerfield, and Johan Santana would be the ace of the Yankees staff. But the more I read, and the more both teams report, that possibility 100% unattainable. This leaves me pondering an age-old question as a Yankee fanatic.
How can I have my cake and eat it too?
I can’t! The Yankees organization can’t! And the millions of other Yankees fans around the world can’t either. The Minnesota Twins have made it abundantly clear that they will not, under any conditions trade Santana to New York without a package that would include one of the four “Baby Bombers”. Under normal circumstances this would immediately end talks involving the Yankees. However the Boston Red Sox have complicated those normal circumstances this week.
The Red Sox have also entered talks with the Twins to acquire Santana. This has forced Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman (Yankee Owner and General Manager) to discuss trading players who would normally be off limits. In my opinion, and probably the opinion of most Yankees insiders, the Yankee brass would do anything to keep Santana from becoming a Red Sox. If that means abandoning prospects and trading away the future, they will. The only silver lining for the Yankees is that the Twins asking price from Boston is equally steep.
How will it all play out at Baseball’s winter meetings (where most trades are discussed) next week? No one can be certain. I personally could see any one of three possibilities happening. I could see Santana remaining as a Twin, I could see him as a Red Sox, and I could see him in Pinstripes.
Only one thing do I know for sure.
If a trade does occur, and the Yankees land Santana, then the Poster on my front door is useless!
