Yo Johan! Trins Trade Ace
For months now, rumors have been spread around baseball about the trade for Johan Santana. It had become obvious the the Minnesota Twins were ready to trade off their ace pitcher very early on in the off season. And yesterday, it was all completed, and Johan was sent to another city in a trade.
Despite rumors, he was not sent to the Boston Redsox or to the New York Yankees, but rather to a different New York team, the Mets.
Yes, the Mets. Not exactly the first choice of where he would presumably go, but nevertheless, the Twins sent him there for a quartet of prospects. Pitchers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Deolis Guerra and outfielder Carlos Gomez.
Santana, 28 and will be 29 when the season starts, is originally an undrafted free agent from Tovar,Venezuela. For the last 4 years, he has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball while winning 2 Cy Young awards. He has played 8 major league seasons, all with the Twins, and has accumulated a 93-44 record with a 3.22. In his first full season, 2003, he had a 12-3 record with a 3.07 ERA. In 2004, which is probably his best overall season, he won the Cy Young award with a 20-6 2.61 ERA. 2006 was not a good year for pitchers all around, but Johan posted a 19-6 record with a 2.77 ERA, winning the Pitcher's Triple Crown and the Cy young award. In 2007, he didn't do quite as good as his previous years, but still put up a respectable 15-13 record with a 3.33 ERA. If there was one pitcher in all of baseball I would want, it would probably be Santana.
Carlos Gomez, only 23, was signed by the Mets in 2002 as a non-drafted free agent. He spent 4 different seasons in the minors with the Mets before being called up to the big leagues in 2007 in which he hit .232 with 2 homeruns. He has a minor league total batting average of .278 and 18 homeruns.
After two minor league seasons Deolis Guerra, at only age 18, has a 9-14 minor league record with a 3.28 ERA.
Kevin Mulvey, a second rounder from the 2006 draft, has a 12-11 minor league record with a 3.02 ERA at age 22.
Philip Humber, 26, is a former first round draftee by the Mets from 2004 draft. After three seasons in the minor and two brief major league stints, he has collected a minor league record of 18-19 and an ERA of 4.11.
And along with the deal, the Mets have signed Santana to a contract extension through 2014 worth $137million-$139 million.
(c) Copyright 2007. K.B. is a writer and founder of the International Association of Baseball Writers.
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