I know, I know. Santana had just a year remaining before unrestricted free agency and demanded an extension in order to sign off on any deal. That matters, so I do not want to make this come off as an apples to apples comparison.With that out of the way, let me now comment on something that I think is just astounding. The Twins may have yielded less for Santana than any of the other high profile deals involving youngsters/prospects this off-season. As far as I can tell, there have been five deals this off-season in which prospects (or at least good, very young MLB’ers). Below is a summary of the deals, with Top 100 rankings by Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus, Keith Law of ESPN and John Sickels. Johan Santana to the Mets. Mets return to Minnesota: Age Pos KG KL JSC. Gomez 22 OF 65 35 52 P. Humber 26 RHP NR NR NRD. Guerra 19 RHP 79 80 36K. Mulvey 23 RHP NR NR 37Nick Swisher to the White Sox. White Sox return to Oakland: Age Pos KG KL JSG. Gonzalez 22 LHP 56 NR 29 De Los Santos 22 RHP 46 57 57Ryan Sweeney OF (MLB in 2007) Dan Haren to the Diamondbacks. Snakes return to Oakland: Age Pos KG KL JSB. Anderson 20 LHP 50 NR 48 A. Cunningham 22 OF NR NR NRDana Eveland 24 RHP NR NR NRGreg Smith 24 LHP NR NR NR C. Gonzalez 22 OF 26 42 39 Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett to the Rays. Rays return to Minnesota: Age Pos KG KL JSDelmon Young 22 OF .288/.316/.408 (MLB) J. Pridie 24 OF NR NR NRB. Harris 27 2B .286/.343/.434 (MLB)Ryan Church, Brian Schneider to the Mets. Mets return to Washington: Age Pos KG KL JSL. Milledge 23 OF .272/.341/.446 (MLB)Have a look at those packages and tell me, did the Twins get the best one? I am not sure they did. In fact, I think they may have received more for Garza and I think the Mets may have gave up more for two middling players from Washington. I know there are many variables that enter into a deal of this nature but I remain astounded that in this market, one in which top prospects have been changing hands for solid, established talent, Minnesota could not get more in return.Patrick Sullivan, 2/3/08, 4:21 PM EST
