Future Twin?

These days Roger Clemens is dominating headlines, not Johan Santana. Yet nearly two months after the Yankees first started trade talks with the Twins over Santana, the Minnesota ace is not off the Yankees' radar. Don't be surprised though if the New York Mets, and not the Yankees, end up with Johan Santana for $20 million a year after the Twins' Cy Young Award winner becomes a free agent after the 2008 season.

Last year starting pitcher Johan Santana went 15-13 with an era (earned run average) of 3.33 for the Minnesota Twins. Now he's reaching the end of his contract and will be asking for the big bucks after the 2008 season. The left-hander will be 29 years old reaching the 2008 season He has denied previous extensions that the Twins have offered him. Santana said that the money amount wasnt high enough so since then other teams have been contacting him and trying to nail one of the leagues best pitchers. If the Twins don't reach agreements this could hurt the team a lot for the future because after Santana the Twins pitching drops off quite a bit.

Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner has not closed the door on a trade for Twins left-hander Johan Santana. He is still in the deciding process and is involved in little talk back and forth. Right-hander Phil Hughes and center fielder Melky Cabrera would likely be part of a multiplayer package needed to get hold of Santana, who is two-time Cy Young Award winner. So far the only major trade talks are with the Red Sox, Yankees, and the Mets. All three of them are teams with a lot of money for guys like Santana. I asked fellow classmate Micah what team he thought he would end up with and the spit out " The Yankees, the Yankees always get who ever they want." Which i think is true, in the past five years the Yankees have made some of the biggest trades ever.

The Twins know what they can get for Johan Santana and they realize none of the packages will calm down their fans, who we might never forgive the team for trading the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Star Tribune reports that Twins officials say they think Santana will be traded before spring training opens next month. Fans and I will have to wait and see what goes down in the next month or two before training camps.

By: Sean Thomforde