Red Sox Making Progress On Johan Santana

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 2:04am: Tim Brown checks in.  He confirms the Twins are checking Lester’s medical records.  He says the current deal on the table is Lester, Crisp, Masterson, and a minor leaguer.  A Red Sox official was said to be "cautiously optimistic."  If the current scenario is accurate, perhaps the Twins have finally bent on their demand for both Lester and Ellsbury.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 1:57am: Rosenthal notes that the Sox have roared back into the Santana derby, but says that as midnight passed the Yankees were still talking to the Twins.  Hmmm, maybe midnight eastern time because I think Cashman went to bed already.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 1:25am: Looks like things with the Red Sox are moving along – the Red Sox have given the Twins Lester’s medical records to review.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 1:15am: Unconfirmed report from the Boston Globe says the Red Sox were looking at Santana’s medical records, which could imply an agreement.  Or maybe they just wanted to check out his medical records.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 1:06am: Hank Steinbrenner expressed doubt that his team would get a Santana team done when talking to Kat O’Brien.  However, she spoke to him at 11:45pm CST on Monday, and we had two updates since then.  Anyway, discussions are not yet closed off.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 12:49am:  Bleeding over into Tuesday…Stark has an update that pretty much echoes Heyman.

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 12:38am: SI.com’s Jon Heyman has the goods.  The Twins wanted a package of Hughes, Cabrera, Horne, and Jackson from the Yankees and they balked.  They’ve asked the Red Sox to create a new proposal with Lester in it.  Sounds like the Red Sox have the lead at the moment.  Heyman thinks the Twins will make a decision soon. 

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 11:09pm: Yahoo’s Tim Brown talked to a Boston official who believes the Yankees are "very close" to completing a Santana trade.  However a source of mine just indicated that the meeting ended in a standoff because the Twins continue to demand Ian Kennedy in the deal.

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 10:16pm: Matthew Cerrone says the Twins have moved on from the Yankees and Red Sox, and are calling other teams to discuss Santana.  Tyler Kepner says the Yanks have interpreted the Twins’ nonresponse to their offer as a rejection.  And Jayson Stark thinks this thing is on life support. 

Peter Abraham, though, says the Yanks and Twins are meeting tonight (as we speak actually).  And the Red Sox aren’t putting out any deadline anyway.

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 3:55pm: According to Kelly Thesier, the Twins are in no rush to trade Santana and aren’t worried about the Yankees’ deadline.

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 1:57pm: Rosenthal says the Twins are considering filing tampering charges.  The Boston Globe has an update but nothing much new.

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 12:14pm: Not that they were ever really in it, but MLB.com’s Jim Street says the Mariners are no longer in the running for Santana.

FROM 12-3-07 at 11:05am:

The previous Johan Santana thread is up to 287 comments, so let’s kick off a fresh one for the Winter Meetings.

La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Twins are not amused with Hank Steinbrenner’s public comments regarding their negotiations.  It’s not known if the Twins will pursue tampering charges.  Joe Christensen calls Hank’s comments "blatant tampering," but admits that he loves it as a reporter.

Interestingly, Neal debunks the notion that Santana has demanded he be traded to only the Yankees or Red Sox.  Neal says Santana has placed no limitations on where he ends up, as of yet.