Yankees Interested in Santana

The New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins are in preliminary discussions about Johan Santana possibly headed to the Bronx. To get the two-time Cy Young winner, the Yankees will have to give up one of their big three young pitchers, centerfielder Milky Cabrera, and a prospect or two. With the uncertainity of Andy Pettitte's return this would be a big time acquisition for the Yankees, but very bad for baseball.

The owner of the Twins, Carl Pohlad, is worth almost $3 billion, which ranks him 107th on the list of richest Americans. They will also be getting nearly $400 million in city subsidies for their new stadium in Minneapolis. Remember the Yankees are paying for their stadium out of pocket. Therefore, they really have no excuse not to sign Johan Santana, who is the franchise! They already let Torii Hunter go, so that's another $12 million off the books. The Twins clearly are not the Yankees, who use hundreds as toliet paper, but they are hardly strapped for cash.

However, if they want to trade Santana now is the time. They cannot bring him back next year, and risk being in contention at the trade deadline. If they are in contention, how can they sell trading Santana to their fans. They would have to keep him, and then lose him for nothing but a draft pick when he leaves via free agency. They cannot allow that to happen as Santana is too valuable. What they should do though is try as hard as possible to re-sign him, and go into the new building (which the tax payers are paying a chunk of) with Santana as the face of the franchise. Pay up, Pohlad! You are 92 years old! Are you planning a $4 billion, 100th birthday party in Vegas?

Unfortunately, this is a problem that will continue forever in Major League Baseball. Unless they do the right thing and agree to a salary cap and floor, which the MLB Players' Union will never allow, this problem will continue growing and growing. It is too bad that another one of baseball's big free agents (or soon to be in Santana's case) is going to the Yankees. Hopefully, the Twins involve the Red Sox as best they can to jack up the price as high as possible before unloading him to New York.

Pat Morgan