NASHVILLE – Bill Smith likes to work in the same shadows Brian Cashman enjoys.
So, as the Winter Meetings closed yesterday at the Opryland Hotel, there was a feeling the GMs from the Twins and Yankees eventually will be able to get together on Johan Santana now that the baseball world isn’t hovering over the Twins 24/7.
“It was a little overwhelming from a media standpoint,” Smith said via phone yesterday afternoon. “I am whole lot more comfortable under the radar.”
Asked if he was bummed by not making a deal for Santana, Smith said, “I am disappointed we didn’t improve our club. But we have good pieces and good people.”
In Santana, who turns 29 in March, the Twins have the best pitcher in baseball. At the start of the Winter Meetings, the Yankees were the heavy favorite to land the two-time AL Cy Young winner. However, when Hank Steinbrenner’s self-imposed deadline of midnight Monday night passed without a deal, the Red Sox ascended to the position of favorite.
By Tuesday night the Yankees were accepting the possibility that Santana was going to join Josh Beckett atop the Red Sox’s rotation. That scenario dimmed somewhat Wednesday, and the Red Sox left yesterday without a deal. By that time many baseball executives installed the Mets as the favorite, even if they won’t include Jose Reyes in a trade.
“I am still going to be engaged with the other 29 clubs,” Cashman said on the way out the door. “If it makes sense now and in the future . . .”
Having agreed to deal Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera, the Yankees walked away from the trade because they refused to part first with Ian Kennedy then Jeffrey Marquez, and because they had second thoughts about giving Santana the $20 million plus for seven years that it will take for him to waive a no-trade clause.
However, history has instructed us not to sleep on the Yankees staying dead. During the 2004 season, Randy Johnson trade talks died. In December of that year, the Yankees came close to acquiring him and didn’t. Then when the glare disappeared, the deal was made in January.
In addition, the Yankees moved lightning quick in February 2004 to get the Alex Rodriguez trade done after a deal from the Rangers to the Red Sox crashed.
The Yankees understood very clearly after losing to the Indians in the ALDS that they needed a No. 1 starter. Despite spending over $400 million to bring Jorge Posada, Bobby Abreu, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Rodriguez back, the Yankees still don’t have an ace. Unless, of course, Joba Chamberlain is a Beckett-in-the-making.
“The plan for us is for Joba to be a starter,” Cashman said of the right-handed gas-thrower who thrived as Rivera’s setup man across the final seven weeks of the season. “He has the high-end capability to be a starter.”
Since the trade market for a top starter starts and ends with the A’s Dan Haren, a pitcher Steinbrenner believes will be just as expensive from a talent standpoint, the likely route is Santana. The Diamondbacks are lusting for Haren, who has $9.9 million and two years remaining.