The latest news out of Sandy’s camp — He mentioned on WFAN that signing Johan Santana is a possibility. Although this could be nothing more than him covering his bases and making sure that all options get explored, he didn’t flat out deny anything. Santana has made his intentions clear — he plans to pitch again next year and has been working to return from the injury that knocked him out for this year.
Signing Santana would likely come on the cheap and it would be a similar deal to the one Shawn Marcum got from the Mets last year — low base salary with potential incentives. Alderson noted that he would prefer not to spend on pitchers coming off injury — but didn’t discount the possibility of signing Santana if he were to come cheap.
With Harvey potentially missing time next year rehabbing his injury, Zack Wheeler, Jon Niese, and Dillon Gee are all staples in the rotation, with Jenrry Mejia potentially working his way back into the rotation at some point. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a little pitching depth, although counting on Santana might be quite the risk. Santana last pitched in 2012 where he made 21 starts for the Mets to the tune of a 4.85 ERA. He fired 117.0 innings. He made 109 starts for the Mets over 4 years with an ERA of 3.18 over that span.
At the very least, Alderson gave us something to talk about… Would you guys want Johan back on an incentive-laden type? Hell, if Chris Young, Dice-K, Shawn Marcum, and Aaron Harang get fliers, Santana certainly warrants a look.
