Actually, he’s in his late 20s.

Hughes will likely be at least 80% as good as Santana in 2008; he may well be as good or better thereafter, and he will do it at only a fraction of the cost.

I don’t want to root for a rotisserie team of other teams’ stars. I prefer to watch prospects develop and pitch for the Yankees.

if he’s for the money I say let him go free agency because now I’m hearing 5 yrs. $126 M if that’s the case a 7 yr. contract we’re talking about $180 M plus tax of 40% we’re touching $250 Million for a LH SP who is an ace but is in his mid 30′s…WHY TRADE PROSPECTS FOR HIM !!!

The only trade I would do is Kennedy (or Wang)/Melky/Tabata.

Santana Counters Twins’ Offer

Sid Hartman was correct – Joe Christensen confirms today that the Twins did offer Johan Santana a five-year, $93MM deal (18.6MM annually). The pact was designed to top Carlos Zambrano’s by $1.5MM. Problem is that Santana isn’t 1.6% better than Zambrano. He’s a lot better than Z.

Santana countered by asking for $126MM, according to Christensen. His article implies that Santana asked for seven years in the counterproposal, since Santana’s agent cited Barry Zito’s deal and the dollar amount is the same. The Twins balked at the counteroffer and expect to trade Santana. This doesn’t compute, because the sides seem close. I wonder – maybe Santana actually asked for $126MM over five years? Santana could be a $25MM man on the open market, and maybe he’s not offering a hometown discount. If Christensen’s source told him the number of years, he would’ve put that in the article.