UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 4:22: Ken Rosenthal says the 72-hour window to sign Santana is now open.
UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 3:15pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today says an agreement to trade Santana to the Mets has been reached. They’ll send Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins. The Mets still have to work out a six or seven year extension for Santana, according to Nightengale. If this baby reaches its true conclusion we’ll sit down and analyze.
UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 2:55pm: More from Olney. His sources say the Mets have the best offer, the Red Sox also made offers, and the Yanks are out. Santana apparently asked the Twins to make a decision, wrap this thing up. Wrap it up! Olney is not sure whether F-Mart is part of the Mets’ offer.
UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 2:06pm: SI.com’s Jon Heyman weighs in. He sees the Mets as the frontrunner, the Red Sox on the fringes, and the Yankees as nearly out of the running. The Mets are offering Gomez/Humber/Mulvey/Guerra but not Fernando Martinez. If they get Santana, the Mets will commit to only five years but with a high average annual value of $22-25MM.
UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 1:11pm: WFAN’s Mike Francesa believes the Twins upped their offer to five years, $100MM for Santana, but he rejected it.
UPDATE, 1-29-08 at 9:42am: ESPN’s Buster Olney says the Twins asked for each team’s "last and best offers" on Monday. They could decide Santana’s fate as early as today. Olney adds that the Yankees "appear to be not presently engaged whatsoever in the Santana talks." Olney used to be a Yankees beat writer, so he’s bound to have a good line on this.
As for the Red Sox – Olney is hearing conflicting things about Jon Lester’s availability. It’s possible that Lester could only be had in a more limited package – he, Coco Crisp, and not much else.
FROM 1-29-08 at 8:02am:
Over at MetsBlog today, Matthew Cerrone does a nice job summing up the Johan Santana situation.
The New York Daily News indicates that the Mets are the one team pushing for Santana, but the Twins might use the Erik Bedard haul as a measuring stick. Joel Sherman sees it as a Mets-Red Sox battle. He notes that Carlos Gomez will skip the Caribbean Series not because of an impending trade but just to limit his games.
We could finally get some kind of resolution with Santana this week. Just to keep things interesting, check out Mark Healey’s note about the Dodgers "creeping into the picture."
