Santana Is Still Up In The Air for NY

from Tommy Marcus at Metsbullpen.com

George Steinbrenner was quoted earlier saying:

“It’s up to Minnesota what they want to do and I assume they’re still thinking about trading him. As far as what I’m going to do, I don’t know…The door’s not closed. I’m still thinking about it.”

As far as I can tell, I think the Mets stopped trying so hard to work out a deal for him, and maybe were negotiating with the A's the past few days, that is, until yesterday's trade.

Mike Francesa said yesterday on WFAN:

“I ran in to a few people…I did learn one bit of information…There has not been a conversation yet between the Mets and Twins, and they are on going, where the Twins have made an offer to the Mets or a counter offer that has not included Jose Reyes. So, reports are not true. Reyes has been a deal breaker, from Minnesota’s stand point. The Mets are hoping, by January, that that will not be the case. The Mets are hopeful, they think they will be serious players for Santana. Reyes has been a hang up. They have not come off of Reyes yet…And that’s from the horse’s mouth. All I know is this, the Twins have never ever asked for anything less than Reyes.”

I know that the Mets will not trade Reyes, so with that information, it makes me feel a lot better on the situation we have in trying to get Santana. I think that the Twins really want to get rid of him, and move into a rebuilding process, so sooner or later they are going to accept one of these deals that may be a tiny bit below the expectations that they brought into the Winter Meetings.