News and Notes: Santana Forced Trade

With news coming out that Johan Santana demanded a trade before Tuesday makes me think that he will get a deal done with the Mets and complete the trade. For those of you that have not heard, Santana said that if a trade was not done by Tuesday, he would refuse to waive his no-trade clause and would hit the free agent market after the season. So in the Twins defense, the Mets were the only team willing to make an offer under the circumstances and to get four top prospects instead of two, unproven draft picks makes the trade look better. Still, there seems to be a lot of disgust among Twins fans and rejoicing among Mets fans. Omar Minaya has always been operating under the win-now mentality, and this is a fine example of him doing so. Back when he first took over, he quickly acquired big name players Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Beltran, and Pedro Martinez, among others. Now, he unloads several prospects for another big name in hopes of winning the World Series. I think this is a way to run a ball club, but I prefer more of the building the minor league system style better. But, by unloading your minor league system it means you must draft better players looking for bigger bonuses. I think it will work for the Mets at least the next couple of the years, before they trade for another big name player.

In other news...

Red Sox Shopping Crisp: The Red Sox are shopping Coco Crisp hoping they can trade him by the end of next week. As for teams interested, there are not many, but we could see several teams jump in looking for a stop gap outfielder.

Jays May Trade Rios?: The Blue Jays have tried to trade Alex Rios all off season and might continue to do so this off season. Rios could probably land a lot more at the trade deadline, especially if he is hitting well, and it would allow the Blue Jays to avoid giving him big money. The Blue Jays have pretty good pitching and if they are able to trade Rios to a team like the Padres midseason, they could probably get several prospects that could help towards the future.

Reds back in Bedard hunt?: According to one Reds executive, the Reds might look to get back in on the Bedard race now that things have turned sour with the Mariners. I believe they would offer Joey Votto as the center piece, along with pitching prospect Johnny Cueto and at least one other prospect.

Podsednik in Colorado?: Scott Podsednik is closing in on a minor league deal with Colorado. The deal includes an invitation to Spring Training, but I think Podsednik will do very well in Colorado.

Crede to Giants: The Giants and White Sox reportedly have a deal in place that would send Joe Crede to the Giants for at least two prospects. If Crede can get to Spring Training and prove that he can do well then they will go through with the trade. Otherwise, they will play with what they got.

Pirates like Bako?: The Pirates are going after Paul Bako as their back up catcher. I think Paulino is in for a very good year, but Bako would be a very solid back up. Not only does he have experience in the NL Central, but he is very good with handling his pitchers, something that is hard to come by.