27
2011
Should The Mets Trade Santana?
An article by 
It appears like such a shocking question to ask, but should the Mets deal their ace Johan Santana?
The Mets have a great deal of money invested in the ailing ace who has failed to complete 30 starts since the 2008 season, his first year with the Mets. With Santana’s health in question and no clear return date, would it be in the Mets best interest to trade Santana in a deal similar to the deal the Padres made when they traded their ace Jake Peavy to the White Sox in 2009?
Peavy signed a three-year $52 million contract extension with an option for 2013 with the Padres after the 2008 season. Not long after, Peavy went down with a torn ankle tendon in May of 2009. Instead of waiting for the former Cy Young award winning righty to heal up, the Friars decided to ship Peavy to the White Sox for a slew of pitching prospects. So far, the only prospect from the deal that has truly benefited the Padres has been Clayton Richard who has 20-12 with a 3.84 ERA since joining the Padres in 2009. As for Chicago, Peavy, who has gone 10-6 with a 4.11 ERA since joining the White Sox, is once again on the disabled list, this time with a torn right latissimus dorsi muscle. It appears the Padres ran away with that deal, saving themselves from not only a $52 million commitment, but getting a young, quality starter out of the deal.
Could this be the Mets in the near future with Santana? The two-time Cy Young award winner has battled through many injuries the past few season. In 2008, in an unforgettable performance to prolong the Mets postseason hopes, hurled a three-hit shutout with a torn meniscus in his knee. In 2009, Santana pitched for nearly a month with bone chips in his throwing elbow. Then most recently in late 2010, Santana left a game with a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder, probable to return in mid-July. Obviously Santana will try to play through any injury until his body physically will not allow him, but these constant injuries are not exactly worth his $77.5 million and three guaranteed years left on his contract.
So the 77.5 million dollar question is: Should we trade Santana?
If Alderson decides to go into rebuilding mode, a decision that will most likely be determined by this season’s July 31st trade deadline, Santana should probably be dealt in order to make room for the talented young starting pitching prospects making their way through the farm system. Given his estimated time of return, it gives him and the Mets the chance to show he is fully capable of performing at a dominant level.
But who can afford such a large contract? The Angels, Redsox, Tigers and Yankees come to mind. It is a stretch, but it is possible that the Mets could find a fit for Santana with the cross town rival Yankees, who pursued Santana in the 2008 offseason before the Mets acquired the 32-year old southpaw. The Yankees are in desperate need of established starting pitchers and are willing to pay top dollar to fulfill this need. The Yankees might even be willing to trade their blue chip prospect Jesus Montero and maybe a mid-level pitching prospect for the chance to add another ace to their uncertain pitching staff. This is completely hypothetical but if the time comes to deal Santana, a team that could not only take on Santana’s enormous contract but have prospects the to give a package of promising young talent back to the Mets.
If the time comes where Alderson needs to clean house and rebuild, Santana’s uncertain health may be too much than the Mets can work with when choosing who to build a new team around.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Santana has failed to complete the last 2 seasons…although, his numbers were still very good, he just had major surgery which no pitcher has made a successful comeback after having. The Mets still owe Santana $72 million plus a $25 million dollar option for 2014 (which includes a $5.5 million dollar buyout). He is now 32 years old and on a decline both on the field and physically. There is no way the Mets could trade him and get any sort of value in return, not to mention the Mets will probably have to pay a large portion of the money still owed to him. Trading him at this point seems like a poor idea…might as well wait to see if he can comeback and actually prove he still has value, not to mention, even at 75% of what he was, Santana would still be the Mets #1 pitcher.
That is why I said to give him a few starts to showcase to the other teams he is still capable of being a #1 pitcher. He’ll likely be back around the All-star Break, that gives him 2-4 starts before the deadline.
If the Padres were able to deal Peavy, and his entire contract and still get a nice return, why can’t we do the same with Santana?
Peavy was only 28 years old and was out due to an ankle injury. Upon his return, he went 3-0 with a 1.97 ERA post-trade. His major injuries occurred after the trade.
His ankle injury was a torn ankle tendon. still very serious.
And Santana still may be older but he still has dominant stuff
The only chance to get something good for Santana would be at next years trading deadline, after he’s reestablished himself. Right now he has no value at all. A year and a couple of months from now he might have tremendous value and the money owed would be a lot less too.
Matt, of course, no one takes a gamble sight unseen; we’re stuck with him until he actually proves his recovery, if he does show well, say in 2,3 GS in June/July, I for one will volunteer to pack his bags & carry them; though his likely needing an incentive from the receiving club to approve bypassing his Full No Trade the return isn’t likely to reach Peavy return levels; but, never underestimate NYY panic to avoid a back 3 of Garcia,Collon,Millwood, even a pig in a poke looks good in that company. Realizing the desperation in the Bronx come 7/31, if Santana has even shown a smidgeion of effectiveness, I’m thinking I’d have little Monteros interest, since they haven’t had it; but would insist upon an ante of Banuelos to open discussions, perhaps accompanied by 2B prospect Corban Joseph(both with AA Trenton Thunder) I’d certainly hope eliminating the $70+M owed creates a reasonable atmosphere for retention of Reyes.
The very sad thing is we’ve already paid $60M for only 40Ws & a journeyman’s excuse Re. run support; every Ace gets low run support by nature of facing opposing Aces more times than most a TRULY EFFECTIVE ACE. out zeroes their opposite number to counteract this phenemenon, Santana, for whatever reason has not done it in Flushing. For example, Typically Seaver could not depend upon many runs whenever he opposed Carlton, the result was he didn’t get many & those lowly Mets were the only team marring Carlton’s dominance record upon entering the HOF, Mets are only team to be .500+ against LEFTY!
over his 3y NYM tunure Santana’s been involved in 18 shutouts winning 13:
2008 4W-0L 34GS
2009 4W-2L 25GS
2010 5W-3L 29GS
IN MY EXPERIENCES ACES TEND TO PERFORM A TAD BETTER WHEN FACING PARTICULAR RVALRY GAMES.
NOT SO with SANTANA as ATLANTA has particularly victimized him from the 2008 outset
and his 2 most disasterous GS were against PHL(05/02/10 11-5) & NYY(06/14/09 15-0)
While there’s certainly no denying Santana’s desire & competitivness, whether it be the slow merging in velocity between his famous change & his fastball, his too consistant “on the plate” geography or the eventual disintegration brought on by the successive surgeries & the toll of the ensuing rehabs Santana cewrtainly has not lived up to his billing as “BEST PITCHER IN BASEBALL”, when we acquired him let alone his “HIGHEST PAID” status set upon him by inking 6Yrs/$137.5M negotiated personally & solely by Jeff Wilpon,COO.
The paindul conclusion simply is, Wrong timing as this team will need to sacrifice too much to continue to employ such a high priced luxury item as a $25M+ SP.
Regardless off his status as “the best we have” his continued tunure is untenable as 31 yr old pitchers rarely improve esp after shoulder surgery, if they ever pitch effectivewly again. @ $70+M sttill do+ repayment of deferred salary from eaxh of the 6 yrs commencing annually in 2015 as $5M+1.25% compounded interest while the monies from ’08 &’09 asccrued for this purpose was in the accounts held by Madoff. OH WELL, the bad news keeps rolling in by dealing him now we only eat the ’08.’09,’10 $15M+ we pass onto the receuiving team 2012,13,14 under those same interest terms.
Santana could/should be dealt ONLY IF he returns earlier than expected and show flashes of the old Santana in order to have a trade market for him. I can see teams like Toronto showing interest since they need a true ace in their rotation right now as well as players that can get on base for them. A lot of their guys are spotty although they can hit a ball a country mile.
If Santana came back looking dominant, think they would trade us Bautista?
If we would try to trade Santana to Toronto I think Travis Snider, J.P. Arencibia and some pitching prospects would probably be the most realistic scenario
I wouldn’t mind bringing in Arencibia at all. What do you think would it take to acquire Kyle Drabek? Needless to say, Toronto will definitely want more than just Santana for Drabek.
He was the centerpiece of their deal for Halladay so chances are that they will not be trading him unless they get Bryce Harper and Stephan Strasburg in return Lol.
How the hell can they trade him on the DL? It’s possible he won’t even be back by the trade deadline. And what sort of prospects can they get for a pitcher who has been suffering a major injury every year? The sensible thing would be to wait at least until the end of the year (assuming he pitches).
He is likely going to return the same day that Beltran returned. the day following the All-star break. That gives his 2-4 outings before the trade deadline.
The Mets would LOVE to trade Santana, but in no way would they be able to find a buyer, unless they were willing to eat a large portion of the contratc. Peavy’s situation doesn’t compare – his was an ankle, while Johan’s is a potentially career-threatening shoulder injury. There’s a very real chance he doesn’t come back. No team is going to absorb the salary and risk.
so many Ifs to the scenario. But yes, if they get an offer that takes a good chunk of his salary off the books, and supplies some talent back, they would likely jump at it.
But he is not even close at this point to stepping back on a mound to pitch. I would guess the odds of him back, pitching in real games, by mid-July are about 99-1, and that might be too good!
Shouldn’t the question really be COULD we instead of should we?
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to make that trade at this point in time.
Not until he comes back and has shown something and by the time he does we will know if we are rebuilding or not.
If so then maybe it makes sense to hold onto him as our #2 starter until such time as we can promote the Mejias and Harveys and maybe also by then we will have traded or signed a top ace.
All too soon to be talking a trade of anyone if you ask me.
Only trades that would be made now are for ancillary players that played their way out of an everyday job but might get back into one with some other team.
So these Trade of the day posts are just pointless. Nothing is going to happen until June the earliest.
There is no way you can get a team to get a team to assume Santana’s entire contract, much less being able to get prospects back. Santana’s contract is an awful one that the mets would be lucky to get rid of. Even if he were pitching great right now it would be very hard to move.
Clayton, you come up with the most horrible Mets thoughts. Did you fall on your head yesterday or something that gave you that idea? LOL JK man.
Back on topic, i think the only way the Mets trade Santana, is if the other team that wants Santana would pay half of the salary left on Santana’s contract. I kindof think its a high risk/high reward kindof deal with Santana if you think about the injuries he has suffered the last two seasons.
Thats just the only way i see it happening.
Hahaha Gee Thanks! (no pun intended).
Yes as I said in my article, it is completely hypothetical but also Santana is not the kind of person to go down whenever something goes wrong.
The man pitched a complete game shutout with a torn meiscus and pitched a month with bone matter floating around in his throwing elbow. Tough as nails!
I can never see Santana ending up like Brandon Webb or Chin Meng Wang. He would still go out there if his arm was broken. (of course his motion would be more of a whipping action with a broken arm, but you get my point Lol.)