With the Red Sox getting ready to meet in their suite to talk about what’s going on in the Johan Santana sweepstakes, Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe shares his thoughts about what he thinks they will be talking about.
If the Sox do not trade for Johan Santana, an outcome last night as plausible as a deal going down, it may stem in part from some ambivalence on the part of club officials on whether they really want to do it. Theo Epstein and Co. enjoy watching the kids develop and win–going out and signing Santana makes them more like the Yankees. And surprisingly, there might be a greater willingness, at least on the part of some on the baseball ops side, to let Jacoby Ellsbury go in a Santana deal, and hold onto Lester, the belief being that 1) Ellsbury’s value will never be higher and 2) Lester may have a higher upside than he’s given credit for. At the same time, the Sox are well aware of the attachment many fans already have developed to Ellsbury. On the other hand, how do you pass up the chance to acquire Santana, a pitcher as special as Pedro Martinez was a decade ago?
These are the thoughts that get kicked around while waiting to see if anything develops at the midnight gathering of the Sox brass, development people and scouts.
Edes makes great points and I have to agree with him. As fans, we have become very attached to Ellsbury as well as Lester. But baseball is a business and that’s the one major thing we as fans need to remember.
Our resident blogger on the Red Sox, Curt Schilling chimes in over at 38 Pitches telling us about what’s it like as a player being involved in trade talks.
The first and I think most important part is that guys like Jon Lester, Jed Lowrie and anyone else being named in this deal are learning that this is truly a business when it comes to the team you are playing for. Jon’s been through this before, so has Coco, but it’s a shock to the system that first time. I was caught totally unaware and blown away when it first happened to me because I first heard about the trade to the Orioles as I was walking to the bullpen to pitch a game in AA and happened to pass by a TV and saw my name scrolling across the ticker, “The Orioles have traded Mike Boddicker to the Boston Red Sox for OF Brady Anderson and RHP Curt Schillingâ€, BOOM! That’s how I found out baseball wasn’t about personal loyalties when it comes down to the business aspect. It’s not a bad thing, you certainly wish it were different as a player but the sooner you get it the easier this life becomes to live, especially over the winter and around the trade deadline.
I needed a reason to post this picture again and now I have one. It seems as though our hot little commodity, Ellsbury, has signed on with Scott Boras to be his agent.
Back to the Santana talks.
The Star Tribune reported that the Yankees have never told the Twins they are out of the talks for Santana even though they didn’t speak on Tuesday.
I learned tonight that, despite what Hank Steinbrenner says, the Twins have not been told by the Yankees that they have pulled out of the Johan Santana sweepstakes.
The Texas Rangers said they have spoken to the Twins about Santana as well.
