In the midst of the ongoing trade discussions of Santana to the Red Sox or Yankees, I’ve been following along with the Boston Globe and the NYTimes beat writers. It has given me an entirely different perspective on the potential trade.
First off, these comments from the Globe gave me good perspective of the games being played:
We ran into Terry Francona, dressed in sweats, who was off to see a friend … he pleaded ignorance when asked if anything was going on. Pitching coach John Farrell also passed by, but said he had yet to be brought up to speed.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman, meanwhile, had yet to arrive. GM Theo Epstein and his aides have been holed up in the Sox suite, holding meetings and making phone calls, and there remains a school of thought that the Sox’ primary interest is driving up the price for the Yankees. One Sox type told me a little while ago that there may be more rumor than substance to what has been reported to date, which is par for the course at these things, though we are persuaded by our sources that Ellsbury and Jon Lester have been offered in different packages.
Now, the NYTimes:
The Yankees have agreed to include pitcher Phil Hughes in a package while the Red Sox have agreed to include center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury their offer. The Twins, who need a center fielder, rate Ellsbury as a better prospect than Hughes.
The rumor that the Sox may just be driving up the price doesn’t surprise me. Yet, it’s a high priced gamble should the Twins call them on a potential bluff. My take is that the Twins are more interested in Ellsbury than Cabrera. All this talk about needing starting pitcher strikes me as a bargaining chip more than anything on the part of the Twins. I’m mostly comfortable with a rotation without Santana but with Liriano. It may be a step backwards, but the offense would be taking a massive stride forward.
Back to a potential bluff on the part of the Sox. Perhaps, Bill Smith is playing the poker game. So far he has successfully torqued off Steinbrenner and induced the Sox to include Ellsbury in a package. Ellsbury would be an upgrade over Hunter and is a player that plays Twins baseball (that is he hits the gaps, swings for average or better, shows some power, has above average speed and is defensively sound) as opposed to Cabrera who is a more of a free swinger that hits for power, lower average but with very good arm strength (16 assists in ’07). At the moment, I’ve got complete confidence in Bill Smith. We’ll see how that plays out in the next few days.
On a side note – as of 3pm EST, Cashman still hasn’t arrived in Nashville:
No news yet on the Yankees and Santana, by the way. General Manager Brian Cashman took an afternoon flight from New York and has not yet arrived in Music City.
Things really won’t get boiling hot again until he has landed, made his way to the hotel and setup shop. Then let the fun begin!