Supernatural Santana For Less Than $14.99

The highly anticipated Johan Santana deal has finally be accepted, pending the typical physical and 72 hour negotiation window. You can read anywhere that this deal was not the best out there and I concur the Yanks and Red Sox were making better MLB ready offers. Most are chalking this up to the Twins wanting Santana out of the American League, like the cousin you refuse to see anymore thanks to the "weird" feelings between you.

You know Daisy was a naughty cousin

What is not talked about is what the Twins signaled with this trade. This trade is an admission they do not plan to compete for 2-3 more years. They didn't get back the Mets' best hitting prospect, Fernando Martinez, or the Mets' best pitching prospect, Mike Pelfry. This trade will certainly mean Joe Nathan will walk after his contract expires this year and yet the Twins didn't get the Mets' top relief "prospect", Aaron Heilman. One has to wonder if Dave Littlefield was a personal adviser to new Twins' GM Bill Smith.

Ask Omar Minaya for a pudgy 3B, their third best pitching prospect
and a player that you accidentally unprotected in the Rule V draft

The Twins do have a tremendous track record for these kinds of trades, which I'm sure you will read about on other sites as well. But this deal just wreaks of Pirate patheticness. I can't lump the two together though as the Pirates would never make a trade where the players coming back to the team are younger, with a better upside, than players who are MLB ready.

It does feel good to see such a major deal take place that leaves everyone scratching their heads and not have the Pirates be involved. We're now guaranteed to see Santana once a year during his prime. As a Pirates fan that will be frustrating. As a baseball fan, it is nice to have the game's best pitcher in the NL again. Brandon Webb argument aside, this hasn't happened since maybe Greg Maddux was at the height of his game. Randy Johnson was an elite pitcher for most of his years in Arizona, but Pedro was clearly the better pitcher during that stint.