MLB

JOHAN HAS METS ON HOLD

One major reason neither Livan Hernandez nor Kyle Lohse has signed yet is because they are waiting on the Mets, who in turn will not make a decision about Hernandez and Lohse until they find out for sure what the Twins are doing with Johan Santana. Hernandez and Lohse have gone unsigned this deep into the offseason, so they figure they might as well see if the team that might need one of them the most will come calling.

And the Mets are desperate, and not only because of this year. Orlando Hernandez, Pedro Martinez and Oliver Perez all can be free agents after the 2008 campaign, which means John Maine is the lone veteran starter the Mets currently control beyond this season. General manager Omar Minaya said he is not worried because the team has “the resources” to address the issue. But the Mets also believe that either in Santana or with an inning-eater type such as Livan Hernandez or Lohse, they will have another veteran signed for next season before long.

As for Santana, a few Mets officials find it humorous that they covertly were meeting daily with the Twins at the December winter meetings and being told by Minnesota officials how much they like the Mets prospects at a time when the media was writing the Mets had no chance. Now, the officials say, they are being viewed as the front-runner and talks with the Twins have remained rather formless with Minnesota refusing to definitively provide what it would take to get Santana.

The Mets fear their front-runner status is being floated by the Twins as a way to provoke the Yanks back into more serious discussions, which in turn would re-energize the Red Sox.

As an official from an opposing team said, “The Met offer has not changed since December when it was viewed as not good enough. That was a moment when Phil Hughes was on the table and the Red Sox were engaged totally. Now Hughes is off the table and the Red Sox seem tepid in their interest. It might be that Minnesota overplayed its hand and its chance for a best trade came and went.”

If that theory is correct – and I tend to believe there is a lot to it – then the only way the Mets get Santana is if the Twins internally have decided they must deal Santana before the start of spring training or the regular season, and will take the best offer by a prescribed date. If that is the case, the Mets conceivably could have the best offer on the table.

We probably should ignore those Met edicts that they would not go beyond a five-year extension with Santana. My suspicion is that the Mets could add all kinds of easily reachable levels for sixth – or even seventh-year options.

*

The Yanks finalized a minor league contract a few days back with former Met Chris Woodward. He will battle fellow spring-training invitees Nick Green and Cody Ransom for what likely will be the 25th spot on the roster.

The annual “woe is baseball” reaction arrived last week with news of the Yankees’ 2007 official payroll again being well over $200 million ($218.3) and again well ahead of the next-highest team, the Red Sox ($155.4 million). I hardly want to be a Yankees apologist, but it is much easier for me to justify the Yankees payroll then the projected 2008 Marlins payroll. The Yankees payroll is about half of their reported revenue.

That payroll has helped create a roster that has done what used to be thought of as impossible, drawing four million annually to The Bronx, while also is helping to launch a network. That payroll has created tremendous wealth around the sport in luxury tax dollars, and also via attendance drawn in visiting stadiums. Meanwhile, the Marlins’ highest-paid player in 2008 will be Kevin Gregg at $2.5 million and their total payroll is unlikely to exceed $20 million. That total is less than one-third of what the Marlins receive in revenue sharing/luxury tax (about $35 million) and from the central fund (around another $35 million), which covers, among other items, national TV and radio, the Internet and merchandising.

So before the Marlins sell a ticket, they get $70 million from the Commissioner’s office. Again, what is more offensive to your senses: a team spending the money it takes in or a team not spending the money it takes in?