Forget About Him
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I think that we have finally reached a point where MLB is ruined. I don’t mean that it is ruined because of performance-enhancing drugs, or other ill-advised decisions off of the field. I mean that it is ruined because contracts are really getting out of hand. There are some teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Angels who have limitless funds and are more than happy to spend like it’s the day after Thanksgiving. But, there are many teams that are now being taken out of the market for players that they raised and have become fan favorites.
The Twins are in quite a predicament. Keep the players they have and lose a lot of money, or get rid of them. In July 2004, the Angels signed Vlad Guerrero to a 5 yr/$70 Million contract. That is $14 a year. The Twins offered Torii Hunter a deal worth $15 Mill/Yr and he turned that down. I don’t care if he claims he wanted more years, we offered him a lot of money and that shouldn’t be ignored. Vlad is a better player than Torii, no question, but because of the market…Torii will make more.
How about Johan Santana? The Twins offered him a contract of 5/$93, or 18.6 Mill/Yr. His counter offer...$126/5. That’s well over $25 Million per year. Something that the Twins cannot afford. I really hope they trade him and maximize his value, because once again the Twins made a fair market value.
Here is what I think the Twins need to do. They need to trade Johan for a gluttony of prospects. I don’t mean a couple good ones, I mean if they trade him to Boston…they get ALL of Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. Or to NY they get David Wright, Lastings Milledge, Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Gomez and more, or to the Yankees they NEED to get Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes. Remember…Johan is the biggest bargaining chip there is. If you can get Milton, Guzman, Buchanon and more for Knoblauch, you should be able to get more for Santana…much much more.
With that, they should trade Joe Nathan. You think that the world’s best closer isn’t going to look at Mariano Rivera’s 3/45 Contract and set that as his bar. The Twins can’t afford that. Get more good prospects for Nathan. Close with Boof or Neshek or Guerrier. Sign Mike Sweeney or Jose Guillen to DH. Then sign Morneau, Neshek, Liriano and others to long term extensions before they get extremely rich. Morneau will be the toughest because he deserves more than Hunter, but get him locked up.
The Twins Could Have a pretty good team by 2010…or even sooner. Yankees Deal Mets Deal Red Sox Deal C-Mauer C-Mauer C-Mauer 1b-Morneau 1b-Morneau 1b-Morneau 2b-Cano 2b-Casilla 2b-Casilla 3b-Buscher 3b-Wright 3b-Buscher ss-Bartlett ss-Bartlett ss-Bartlett lf-Kubel lf-Milledge lf-Kubel cf-Cabrera cf-Gomez cf-Ellsbury rf-Cuddyer rf-Cuddyer rf-Cuddyer dh-Sweeney/Guillen dh-Sweeney/Guillen dh-Sweeney/Guillen
sp-Liriano sp-Liriano sp-Liriano sp-Garza sp-Garza sp-Garza sp-Hughes sp-Perkins sp-Perkins sp-Kennedy sp-Baker sp-Buchholz sp-Baker sp-Bonser sp-Lester
People have been saying that for a long time, and baseball is still healthy. Contracts have been increasing dramatically for the last 25 years or so, and the game is still fine.
I do agree that the Twins should trade Santana and Nathan, especially given that they're relatively deep, pitching-wise.