Santana And Wang May Have New Home Teams - Trade Would Create Many Possibilities

There has been little talk of Johan Santana’s future as a Twin but there is a great possibility that Santana will be in a new uniform come Spring Training.

The Yankees may be a great fit for Santana who has a thirst for winning and would be a perfect fit in the Yankees rotation, as he would in any rotation.Santana will command probably somewhere in the range of 20 – 25 million dollars a season and has expressed his dismay about how he felt the direction the Twins organization was headed.

The Yankees especially may need to make a hard run if Andy Pettitte decides to retire. Without Pettitte, the rotation ace would be Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina as the number two starter. Then, the three remaining starters are all youngsters in Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy.

A trade for Santana will surely demand a ready or almost ready pitcher such as Hughes.

Back on November 11, ESPN the Insider reported that Newsday reported that the Yankees may need to include Robinson Cano.
The Twins also will probably be unable to re-sign Torii Hunter who ironically the Yankees have expressed interest in, which would make Melky Cabrera or Johnny Damon expendable.

The best situation for both teams may come if the Yankees can have Hideki Matsui wave his no trade clause and packaging Matsui, Chien-Ming Wang and maybe mid-tiered prospect and or money, which the Yankees are packed with both, in exchange for Santana.

Matsui has no room on the roster as the Yankees have said that they want Damon to be their left fielder and leadoff man, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera are two young, low paid prospects that are major fan favorites and are sparks in the Yankees clubhouse.

As far as Chamberlain, Hughes, or Kennedy, the Yankees have said they are basically untouchable.

However, just as it seems the Yankees three big prospects are probably untouchable; one would assume that Cano and Cabrera would be on that list as well.

Hunter taking over center field doesn’t really make sense for the Yankees. Hunter is unneeded and much more expensive than Cabrera and will cost about the same as far as Johnny Damon.

Kennedy however would probably be the first to go if one of them are needed in a trade. If a trade was to happen, the Twins will get great value for a player that they would have probably been unable to re-sign and the Yankees get possibly the best pitcher in all of baseball, open up the DH spot exclusively for Giambi, and Shelley Duncan, Andy Phillips and Wilson Betemit can all try to take over at first.

Everyone has seen what the Yankees offense can do and one can only imagine what the Yankees rotation could be like. Hypothetically, as there are so many possible trades that can be made, say that Kennedy and Matsui were traded with a prospect or money, Santana would be the ace of the staff, while Pettitte, if he chooses to re-sign, along with Wang would be the two and three starters. Mike Mussina would be the number four starter with Hughes as the fifth man while Chamberlain can go back to being Mariano Rivera’s set-up man in the bull-pen, despite the Yankees insisting that Chamberlain will be a starter next season.

That is of course a hypothetical situation but anything can happen when it comes to trades, especially in the off-season.