Was It Worth It?

According to Bob Klapisch of The Record, the Yanks had the chance to land Johan Santana for Kennedy, Cabrera, and a top level prospect. The Yanks passed. Please allow me a moment: HOLY $#!)

Instead Bill Smith ended up with five mid level prospects (at best) for the best pitcher in baseball. Again, how you misplay a royal flush is beyond me, but as they say in business: you can make money as a bear, you can make money as a bull, but not as a pig. Simply stated, Smith got greedy. Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera? Not enough! We need Kennedy and 9 other top prospects. I'm not even going to discuss the Red Sox offers because they were never superior to the Yankees offer in the first place. Smith thought he could wait, then he waited, then he got desperate, then he got played by Omar Minaya. Nice job Mr. Smith, no way this deal will come back to haunt you. I suppose it's better than losing Santana to free agency and getting nothing, but seriously, when the best prospect you get projects to be a no. 4 starter (read: Jaret Wright) you hardly got equal value. The Mets will pay out behind in order to sign Santana to an extension, but baseball is swimming in money right now, so it's a good investment.

Minaya deserves some gangster points on this one. He didn't let Smith convince him he had other offers on the table because he knew that the fact that Smith was calling him meant that he had no where else to go (both the Yanks and Sox had better prospects and if a trade was out there Smith would've made it). Smith was denied the Mets best prospects (which still didn't measure up to the Yanks' and Sox' winter offerings), and still had to trade Santana. Well played Mr. Minaya, well played. Now all you have to do is make sure the Mets don't collapse again next September.