Mets, Twins agree to terms for Santana

Finally, the Santana story finally appears to be nearing a resolution.

The Mets and Twins have reached and agreement that will send Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins in exchange for Santana.

The Mets have until 5 PM EST Friday to negotiate a 6-7 year deal with Santana, and there’s no question that Santana has the upper hand. If this thing gets done, the contract is going to be huge.

I think Twins fans have to be a disappointed with this outcome. The Red Sox’ and Yankees’ original offers were far superior, and Minaya probably could have been milked for more if this thing hadn’t dragged out for so long. He seems to have been the only serious player at the end.

USA Today reports that the Red Sox scaled back their offer to include lesser minor league prospects once they realized that the Yankees were out of the hunt. This move supports the long-running rumor that Boston wasn’t really wasn’t in it to win, and would have only made a move if it was necessary to keep Santana out of the Bronx.

Theo really played this brilliantly. Hank Steinbrenner should have been taking notes. But he was probably too busy quoting Patton.

All this Santana talk is making my brain hurt

The Santana trade rumors have been building over the last week, but they are now officially out of control. Conflicting reports abound, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get a read on the negotiations. For instance:

According to John Perrotto, it’s unlikely that any deal will be made for Santana during the winter meetings, but he’ll probably be moved before spring training.

However, Peter Gammons thinks the Twins won’t trade Santana at all.

The Boston Globe reports that the Twins aren’t happy with the offers from the Yankees or Red Sox, and are reaching out to other teams including the Mets, Dodgers and Mariners.

The Mets are interested but they don’t want to trade Reyes and may not have enough ammunition without him to make a deal.

And these are just the updates from the last couple hours.

Yesterday saw Jayson Stark report that the Angels were interested.

Shorty after, Tony Reagins said there was no truth to that rumor.

Then the Twins said they wanted to get the deal done with Boston by the end of the day. I woke up this morning fully expecting to find big news.

Trying to keep all this straight is harder than coming up with 10 reasons why Britney Spears is a great human being.

There is only one thing that can be said with absolute certainty:

Theo has really done a great job of putting the Red Sox in the ideal position.

His offer is respectable and firm, but without any sense of desperation, and so far he has refrained from giving the Twins any sort of deadline. He will have to give them one at some point though, since he still needs to move Crisp or Ellsbury. But for now it appears that he’s willing to be patient.

I think the Twins are still hot on the Sox’ offer, but with the Yankees out they need more teams involved to keep the pressure on.

Red Sox are frontrunners in Santana trade

The Red Sox reportedly have two offers on the table for Johan Santana, and it’s up to the Twins to decide which one they prefer. The first offer includes Crisp, Lester, Lowrie and Masterson. The second offer includes Ellsbury, Lowrie and Masterson.

Ellsbury made a ballsy move today when he signed with Scott Boras. He wants to stay in Boston, and possibly figured that the Twins would be less inclined to take him in a trade if they will have to negotiate with Boras somewhere down the line.

The Twins are supposedly more interested in the package that includes Lester, but no word on whether they were influenced by Ellsbury’s decision to go with Boras.

The timeframe given to the Twins by the Yankees has expired, but it’s hard to imagine that they’ll turn down a trade if Minnesota wants to make a deal.

The Twins are expected to make a decision at some point tonight, but who knows. They seem a bit schizophrenic lately.

Red Sox include Ellsbury in offer for Santana

The Red Sox have decided to include Jacoby Ellsbury in their offer to the Twins for Johan Santana.

Interestingly, the Red Sox removed Jon Lester from their offer when they added Ellsbury. If the proposal is accepted and Santana joins the club, Boston would have 7 quality starters slotted in their rotation, providing Theo with plenty of ammo to make another big acquisition.

The current proposal probably looks something like this: Ellsbury/Masterson/Lowrie

If Ellsbury goes to Minnesota, Crisp would likely remain in Boston next season.

The Yankees have reportedly given the Twins until the end of the day tomorrow to make a decision.