Kat O’Brien on her Yankees blog for Newsday writes that Hank and Hal Stienbrenner do not see eye to eye when it comes to Johan Santana.

There’s some talk out there that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner may not be in agreement as to what to do about Santana, perhaps because Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t want the payroll to keep rising.

What could be more entertaining than the brothers Steinbrenner battling it out in the Bronx? I look forward to that over the next few years. 

I know, you’re sick of hearing about him already.

Well, I feel its my duty to pass along any information I come across regarding the most blogged about player of this off season, Johan Santana.

Prospect Insider cites a executive with an National League club who said the following…

“Mets get Santana, but it’s going to cost them both outfielders (Carlos Gomez, Fernando Martinez) and two of their pitching prospects. I see Cincinnati snagging Bedard if they are willing to go Bailey-Votto-Cueto. Baltimore will have to come down from their demands and have already decided Bedard has very little chance to begin the year in their rotation, no matter what they are saying to the media.”

So there you have it folks, your first, and undoubtedly not your last, un-named source reporting ‘buzz’ on Johan in 2008.

Peter Abraham writes on his Yankees blog for the Journal News, regarding the Bombers involvement in Santana…

There are no indications that the Yankees will suddenly get back into the mix for Johan Santana. It’s more an issue of the contract extension that he would demand than parting with prospects. The Yankees aren’t eager to invest $120 million in a pitcher.

Omar, please just get it done already.

Well, that flew by quickly.

Taking a glance at the calendar, pitchers and catchers report in 45 days and we are a mere 57 days from the first Spring Training game, on February 26th against the University of Michigan.

Looking back at this off season so far, the Mets have made four significant changes.

The first is the loss of Tom Glavine. Glavine’s return to Atlanta will have a large effect on the Mets starting rotation. Currently he is replaced internally by placing Mike Pelfrey to the back of the rotation and moving everyone else, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Orlando Hernandez, up a slot with Pedro Martinez up top but with 2 months left, Omar may still look to add a pitcher via trade or free agency.

Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon have been mentioned recently as possible targets. Colon has received positive reviews of his performance in the Dominican Winter League. Omar Minaya famously moved mountains to get Colon while GM of the Expos. Garcia will not likely be ready to pitch until June. Interest in Kyle Lohse, Livan Hernandez, and Joe Blanton has cooled. The Mets remain a dark horse in the Johan Santana sweepstakes, but could surprise many as the Red Sox and Yankees appear involved only to ensure neither of them wins the rights to his services.

The second major change is replacing Paul Lo Duca with Brian Schneider. Lo Duca’s offense has regressed but he’s still a better hitter than Schneider. The upside with Schneider is his defense and ability to manage a pitching staff. It remains to be seen if this element will make up for his hitting deficiencies.

The third major change is the addition of Ryan Church in right field. Church should be an upgrade offensively for the Mets in right. He hits a ton of doubles, has decent power and he’s a proficient defensive outfielder.

Pedro, Maine and Perez make for a solid top end, but the Mets have question marks at the back end of their rotation. Mike Pelfrey has yet to prove he can be a productive major league pitcher, and will have much to prove to those who question his abilities. Orlando Hernandez has been outstanding when he is healthy, but his age and his fragility are a big concern.

The fourth change is in the bullpen. The Mets have sent Guillermo Mota packing, to the delight of pretty much all Mets fans, and will hopefully see Duaner Sanchez finally return. The Mets also added Matt Wise who was quite good until he struck Reds infielder Pedro Lopez in the face with a pitch. Wise apparently was shaken by the incident and his performance suffered, posting a 10.45 ERA in his final 16 outings. He brings an excellent K/BB ratio and a decent 6th inning arm to add to the Mets bullpen depth.

The Mets still have an outside change of landing Johan Santana. If Omar can pull that off, the Mets will have quite a formidable roster entering the 2008 campaign.

Omar, are you listening?

Yes, I noticed your bosses raised ticket prices 20%, basically holding us hostage knowing we wouldn’t dare miss the final season at Shea. It doesn’t help that the ticket hike comes on the heels of the Mets historic collapse.

There is a great way you can make fans feel like they’re paying for something worthwhile.

Put Johan Santana under our collective Christmas trees.

A gesture like this is what fans are clamoring for. The natives are restless with the team coming off a nightmare end to their regular season, and an off season with little to show for.

If you can get a deal done by trading anyone not named Wright, Reyes, Maine, or Perez, you simply have to pull the trigger. Putting Johan at the top of the Mets rotation brings hope, stability, and a much needed jolt of positivity to the orange and blue masses. Imagine the buzz in Queens, with Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana taking the mound in our final season at Shea. Imagine the excitement and optimism it would bring, maybe even enough to make someone forget the last four months.

John Harper of the New York Daily News today cites a an AL executive “close to the situation” who says the Red Sox aren’t really interested in Santana because of the financial ramifications and are only involved to discourage the Yankees.

Kat O’Brien in Newsday writes that the Yankees continue to refuse to add Ian Kennedy to a package along with Philip Hughes and according to a source with knowledge of the situation said Friday,

“I don’t see it happening with us, we pulled out in Nashville, and we haven’t put an offer back on the table.”

The package is there for you to take Omar. All you need to do is wrap it up and put it under our tree.

Chris Kline of Baseball America had these comments on a recent ESPN chat.

Alan (Vassalboro, ME): If you were the Mets, would you deal Gomez AND Martinez, along with Pelfrey, Mulvey, and Heilmann for Santana?

SportsNation Chris: No way. That’s way too much.

Dan (NY): Chris, I know you’re not Jim! Can you please, please, please give me some info on the Mets’ Deolis Guerra? Is this guy as good as he seems? How far away is he?

SportsNation Chris: If he stays healthy, you could see him in 2009. The stuff is that good and I love the body. He can get out of whack easily in his delivery at times, but the negatives are all minor, correctable things. Good presence on the mound.

It seems to me, that the Mets fan base is in favor of doing whatever it takes to land Johan Santana. At MetsBlog yesterday, Matthew Cerrone discussed potential trades and ultimately concludes that he’d pull the trigger on a deal for Johan Santana, which would give up 4 pitching prospects, probably Mike Pelfrey, Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra in addition to Carlos Gomez.

Earlier today, Anthony posted his case for unloading the farm for Mr. Santana.

I’m here to convince you otherwise.

By trading four pitching prospects, plus the very ‘toolsy’ Carlos Gomez for Johan, its essentially mortgaging most of our farm system in favor of winning right now, as well as mortgaging all of our financial flexibility because we’d have to sign Johan to the 7 year deal he seeks, hovering arounds $20 million a year.

We’re all crying for “Freddy Coupon” to open up the wallet for Johan now, and we’ll be set. So we trade for him, but then we want a new LF after Alou is gone, but wait, we’ve given up our financial flexibility on Johan. But it’s a double whammy. Having less financial wiggle room would be OK—if you had people in the farm system who could be used as replacements. However, those players who could be useful at the Major League level anytime soon will then be a part of the Minnesota Twins organization.

So what would we be getting with Johan?

He’ll be 29 when the season starts. Granted we’ll probably get a few years of very solid production out of him, but there are so many variables that can come into play with a pitcher, mainly injuries. There is always the possibility he tears his rotator cuff, a ligament in his elbow and requires serious, career threatening surgery. That leaves us with millions of dollars on the table that handcuff our franchise for years. Even less daunting, is the chance he develops minor injuries as he ages such as recurrent hamstring problems that allow him to make only 25 starts a year. He could even age poorly and we’re stuck with an expensive, unproductive pitcher for a couple years. Injury concerns may seem far fetched, but pitchers’ injuries are so unpredictable and unreliable, and I’m not comfortable investing that much talent and money in a guy that only plays every fifth day.

Injuries aside, he has a 4.41 post season ERA, so we can be sure he’ll carry us to that postseason title. (heavy sarcasm)

Should we lock up Oliver Perez long term, after this following season we’ll only have two shoe-ins for our rotation in 2009: Perez and John Maine. By trading for Johan, we have a third mainstay in our rotation for years to come, but we have to look elsewhere for starters four and five. Our system will be depleted, and our wallet will be emptied into the hands of Johan Santana, so we’ll likely be left with unfortunate options as our fourth and fifth starters.

We don’t know what type of careers Mulvey, Pelfrey, Humber and Guerra will have. Guerra is 18 and everybody seems to rave about him. Everybody seems to really like Mulvey too. However, people seem to be down on Pelfrey and Humber. Humber is still recovering from Tommy John Surgery, and if you look at the numbers, starters bounce back two years after surgery. Best example: Chris Carpenter. Let Humber regain arm strength and we’ll see what comes from that. People express concern over Pelfrey’s lack of a second pitch, but I’ll take a 6′7″ 23 year old with a mid 90 mph sinker any day. It would be a grand mistake to sell low on a prospect, as we would be doing with Pelfrey and Humber.

The way things are looking now, unless either the Twins or Red Sox cave on their demands its very possible Johan will be a free agent next year. Do we not have the patience to wait a year and save the five top prospects we’d be losing?

In addition to Santana, C.C. Sabathia, Ben Sheets and Brad Penny can all become free agents next year. Save five prospects to have one season’s patience. If everybody is so gung-ho about being impatient and demanding to win now, why was everybody in such an uproar when Milledge was traded?

Beyond the four top pitchers we could lose, Carlos Gomez is faster than Jose Reyes–according to Reyes. He’s less developed at the plate and plays a less important position, but you can’t teach being tall and you can’t teach being fast. Alou is presumably gone after this year, and Church is solid but not a long term answer. Gomez would be great to groom for 2009 and Church could hold the fort until Fernando Martinez is ready.

We can sign somebody such as Bartolo Colon or Freddy Garcia to fill in this year, and next year pounce on the strong pitcher market.

In summation:

• We’d be investing all of our financial flexibility in one player, and that player only plays every fifth day.
• Its very possible we’d be able to go after him in free agency after this season, and we’d be sacrificing five top prospects in order to get one extra year of Johan.
• While they probably will never be as good as Mr. Santana, we have yet to see what our prospects can do and we’d be selling low on Pelfrey and Humber despite the facts we have reason to have a positive outlook for them.
• Gomez has speed that comes along once in a long time, and it’d be disappointing to see him develop into a star so far away from us, especially because we have a hole in the OF opening up next year.

I’m all in favor of trading for Santana. But four pitching prospects plus Gomez? No thank you. Take out one of the pitchers, and leave us with something to work with, I’ll probably bite. But all those prospects is just taking our chips and pushing them all in on this hand (this year) something we feel pressured to do after The Collapse, but in truth–by not making this trade we might be less likely to win this year, but we can maximize our winning over the next ten years.

Hot Foot is going to present both sides of the debate as to if the Mets should meet the reported demands of the Twins to offer either Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez along with three pitching prospects or one of Gomez or Martinez and four pitching prospects for Johan Santana. I will be presenting the case for, and later today Andrew Beaton will present the case against.

I want to preface my case by saying I have a sneaking suspicision that the Mets are simply trying to make it seem like they’re making an effort to appease fans, but don’t want to make the commitment in money or prospects it would take to land Santana. My other suspicion is that the reason the Mets reportedly declined the deal was because they believe the Twins will simply take the offer to the Yankees and Red Sox and use it as leverage. The only way the Mets can make this offer is if the Twins are forced to take it or leave it.

If the Mets can have them meet this demand, I believe the Mets should make the deal. While they would be giving up pretty much every top prospect in their system, if any of these players were to meet their potential the Mets would still likely come up on the better end of this deal. The chances of any of them becoming as good as Johan Santana are remote at best.

The other consideration is that the Mets have two high picks in the upcoming draft, one of them the 18th overall pick, which will quickly replenish their system, along with Omar Minaya’s declaration that the Mets will seriously consider not going by the MLB guidance to not pay above slot. The Mets have been good citizens while teams like the Yankees have scooped up players like Philip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain by paying for players other teams passed on to appease the Commissioner.

You cannot be paralyzed with the fear that a player you trade for could get injured. Any player could get injured. If you operated under this kind of neuroticism, you would never make any deal.

The other argument against is the money you would have to devote to Santana. I believe Santana will eventually sign for between $21 to $22 million a year for 6 years. He is likely more interested in the years than getting more money per year.

The Mets have all sorts of new revenue streams, a new stadium, a new television network, and $20 million a year from Citi for naming rights, which pays for most of Santana’s contract. I don’t believe this deal would seriously affect their ability to make other deals in the future.

The Mets problem with pitching started with the rotation not holding down their end of the bargain enough and left the bullpen overworked and out of gas by the time the Mets truly needed them in the final two months of the season. Santana would bring much needed stability and provide a bona fide young proven ace for the foreseeable future to go along with a powerful core of Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Maine and Perez.

Missing out on opportunities to get the top value for your prospects is as foolish as holding onto them and never benefiting from what they can do for your long and short term goals. Much like holding onto a hot Wall Street stock too long only to watch it drop to the floor, one must get optimal returns on their investments.

The Mets traded Lastings Milledge at the lowest point of his value. That my friends is what I would describe as a very poor business decision. What I am advocating here is that the Mets deal their prospects for optimal value. I can’t think of a better pay off on their prospect portfolio than to acquire the best young pitcher in baseball in return.

To balk at the idea of adding one additional player in this deal, be it Fernando Martinez, Carlos Gomez, or Kevin Mulvey, Philip Humber, Mike Pelfrey, or Deolis Guerra is foolish. The chances that any of those players having a career like that of Johan Santana are not good. It is better to have a bird in the hand than two in the bush.

Johan instantly gives the Mets a jolt, not only by solidifying their rotation, but by bringing legitimacy to the team in the same way Pedro Martinez did as the Mets turned the corner in the beginning of the Minaya administration.

The time has come for Minaya to make another bold move. The Mets have been a good team over the past two years but have not been able to get over that final hurdle and return to the World Series.

Make the move Omar, before they change their minds.

Over at Metsblog.com, Matthew Cerrone cites Jon Heyman of SI.com, saying the Mets balked at the price of 4 pitching prospects plus Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez for Johan Santana.

Im assuming the pitching prospects would be Humber, Mulvey, Niese, Pelfrey, and Guerra. The only one i would hesitate to deal is Guerra, just because he has so much upside as a 19 year old kid. If im Omar, I pull the trigger on Gomez plus the above 4, Keeping Martinez and Guerra Around.

In an article for the Star Tribune, Joe Christensen discusses the latest Johan Santana rumors.

According to Cristensen, talks with the Red Sox have centered around Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester however the Sox have refused to part with both Ellsbury and Lester in the same package up to now.  He says that the Twins have been focused on the offer with Ellsbury but the sides are disagreeing on other pieces of the deal to go with Ellsbury, SS Jed Lowrie and relief prospect Justin Masterson.

Regarding the Mets situation with Santana he writes:

Mets General Manager Omar Minaya sounded optimistic about his team’s chances of landing Santana late last week, but others have all but ruled the Mets out. It’s been said Santana would need to fall into Minaya’s lap because he won’t part with shortstop Jose Reyes and has limited pitching prospects.

Some say that despite the Mets’ reservations about Santana’s cost — including talent for the trade and money for his contract extension — they feel compelled to stay involved so fans can’t accuse them of ignoring an opportunity.

Christensen also writes that talks between the Twins and Yankees have been dormant.

So, we’re exactly where we were at a week ago.  It looks like the Sox are ahead but who knows. 

Everybody seems to be writing that the Mets’ in particular have reservations about giving Santana those seven years, but I’m skeptical that any team is really willing to do that happily. My guess is no team wants to give him seven years, but if a team really wants to make a deal happen they will give in to that last year or two.

So, basically nothing new here, but what would a day be like without some Johan Santana chatter?

Head over to Brooklyn Mets Fan for an open letter to Johan Santana listing a number of good reasons why Johan would enjoy playing for the New York Mets.

Dayn Perry on Gotham Sports Radio Tonight at 7pm

Dayn Perry of FoxSports.com and the book “Winners” will be joining me to talk hot stove tonight. As always we will have the chat room set up for questions and comments. Last week it was a great way to interact with other fans as well. To listen live at 7pm or to the replay click here.

Among some of the topics are a Johan Santana update, the price of middle relief, and the impact of the Florida- Detroit Trade. Earlier today I talked about how Omar must pull out all stops to acquire Santana, just like Frank Cashen did with another Minnesota LHP back in the late eighties. To read click here.

Here are some links from newspapers today:

• According to the Daily News, the Mets have interest in Yankees reliever Luis Vizcaino but he is expected to sign elsewhere this week. The Mets also reportedly have interest in soon to be 45 reliever Jeff Fassero, who’s planning a comeback.
• At Newsday, Kevin Davidoff takes a look at what the Mets’ have to do to improve their farm system. He says that teams like the Yankees have consistently restocked the system because they are not afraid to sign their players with above the recommended bonuses, while the Mets strictly adhere to the MLB recommendations for bonuses. He also writes that the Mets’ have hope that the Twins’ focus more on scouting than statistics and that’s why they’d have heavy interest in Carlos Gomez and Mike Pelfrey. Then he poses the question, “But what if the Twins’ scouts just don’t care for the Mets’ prospects? That’s what appears to be occurring.”
• At the San Francisco Chronicle, Susan Slusser writes that the A’s are considering more and more trading Joe Blanton and Dan Haren and that the Mets’ among other teams have expressed interest.

Well, please stay away from Fassero. He wasn’t particularly good when he was 35, and its been 10 years since then.

This Johan Santana roller-coaster is crazy. One day we hear he wants to play for the Mets, next day the Twins don’t want Gomez or Pelfrey according to Davidoff.

Matthew Cerrone writes on MetsBlog that Johan Santana’s preference is to be on the Mets because he wants to get out of the hitter dominated American League and would like to be in New York City.

The Mets continue to have discussions with the Twins regarding Santana.

Read more of Matt’s comments on Santana and the Mets on MetsBlog.

In an article for Fox Sports, the always insightful Dayne Perry breaks down possible deals for Johan Santana.

Perry lists 4 scenerios, one for the Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners and Dodgers. 

After conspicuously omitting the Mets, in his concluding passage he writes:

No team could use Santana more than the Mets, but they don’t have the tempting young arms needed to get something done. Also, now that Lastings Milledge has been jettisoned, they can’t even assemble an attractive package of position players.

Yikes. I’d like to at least think that we’re a possibility, but apparently not. Also, apparently when we traded Milledge it was not supposed to affect our pursuit of a top pitcher via trade, which apparently Perry disagrees with. 

Like you’ll hear me repeat: Omar Minaya keeps his cards very close to his chest regarding trades.  We’ll never be quite sure what he’s doing until it happens.  Nobody saw the Milledge trade coming.  All we can do is wait and see, and as of now I feel like I’m one of the few people that still has faith that Omar will do something to improve the staff before spring training.