UPDATE, 1-2-08 at 10:45pm: Nothing new with Boston’s pursuit of Santana; Nick Cafardo says the Sox still have two different offers on the table for the Twins. Cafardo notes that Santana’s agent quoted the starting bid around seven years, $140MM – and the Red Sox are fine with that.
UPDATE, 1-2-08 at 4:19pm: LEN3 adds that the Mariners are not in the running for Johan. Coupled with the info below it seems to be between the Mets and Red Sox currently.
FROM 1-2-08 at 1:21pm:
Peter Abraham had a note this morning about Johan Santana. He says "there are no indications the Yankees will suddenly get back into the mix for Santana." Abraham notes that the main issue for the Yanks remains the massive extension they’d have to give Santana.
Back on December 28th Joel Sherman said the Yanks had "become more entrenched in their unwillingness to pay the price both in prospects and dollars." He noted that they were reluctant to hand over Phil Hughes or $130MM to Johan.
On the 27th, Jayson Stark said the Yankees last offer was Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez, and an undetermined fourth player, but the proposal was off the table. Stark believed that Hank Steinbrenner could still decide to re-engage the Santana talks though.
