Twins Almanac: The Johan Santana Trade

[Matt Johnson]

This weekend's installment of the Twins Almanac features Rich Becker, Scott Erickson, Johan Santana, Carlos Gómez, and Brainerd native Wayne Caughey. 

Feb. 1; Happy 53rd birthday to former Twins outfielder Rich Becker. He had a heckuva game on July 13, 1996, going 4-for-6 with two home runs, a triple, and a double. Those four extra-base hits are tied for the most in Twins history, and the 13 total bases are tied for second-most. (Bet you know who hold the team record for total bases in a game. Heck, you can probably even name the year, city, and day of the week.)

Becker and Kenny Lofton led MLB center fielders with 11 assists in 1995, and Becker led the majors outright with 16 in 1996. He led all outfielders with five double plays turned in 1995 and nine in 1996. 

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Feb. 2: Happy 57th birthday to 1991 20-game winner Scott Erickson. Erickson — who made his MLB debut midway through the 1990 season — started 1991 off hot, going 12-2 with a 1.39 ERA in the first half en route to being named starting pitcher of the All-Star Game. (Erickson was unable to pitch, however, due to a strained elbow, so in his stead manager Tony LaRussa handed the ball to fellow Twin Jack Morris wore black socks and his pants low in the style of Erickson.) Erickson finished the Twins' 1991 World Championship season tied for the MLB lead with 20 wins and came in runner-up to Roger Clemens in AL Cy Young balloting.  

After a solid ‘92 season, Erickson lost a major league-worst 19 games in 1993. ‘94 was arguably an even worse season for Erickson, though he did no-hit the Brewers at the Metrodome on April 27th. He rebounded after being traded to the Orioles during the 1995 season and ultimately proved to be one of the most durable pitchers of the ‘90s, pitching an American League-leading 251.1 innings in 1998 and winning 73 games between 1995 and ’99.

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Feb. 2: Happy 71st birthday to Brainerd native Wayne Caughey. The Twins drafted him out of St. Cloud State in 1974 and he played nine seasons of professional baseball, including SIX seasons at Triple A between the Twins, Dodgers, and Pirates organizations, but never got that call up to "The Show." He is the former CFO of KLN Family Brands up in Perham, MN. 

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Feb. 2, 2008: On this date in 2008, the Twins did the prudent thing and traded 2004 and 2006 Cy Young Award-winner Johan Santana to the Mets for outfielder Carlos Gómez and three pitchers (all of whom were duds). Gómez showed sparks but never lived up to his potential in Minnesota, though he did score one of the most exciting runs in team history in Game 163 in 2009. But less than a month later he was traded to Milwaukee for former and future All-Star J.J. Hardy. Gómez, for his part, would go on to consecutive All-Star seasons for Milwaukee in 2013 and ‘14. In 2013, he won a Gold Glove and finished top-10 in NL MVP balloting.

After three very good seasons in New York, Santana missed all of the 2011 season. He went 6-9 in 21 starts in 2012. He pitched the first no-hitter in Mets history on June 1, but pitched his final major league game on August 17 at just age 33.

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[Linus]

It was always a source of great amusement to watch Gardys reactions to the stuff GoGo would do.  Drove him nuts.

[Doctor Gast]

I don't think trading trading Santana was prudent. If they couldn't extend him (which was a shame), IMO it'd have been better to keep Santana for that extra year. Then offer him a QO, and if he accepts great if not we get an extra nice draft selection.

[old nurse]

43 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

I don't think trading trading Santana was prudent. If they couldn't extend him (which was a shame), IMO it'd have been better to keep Santana for that extra year. Then offer him a QO, and if he accepts great if not we get an extra nice draft selection.

Bill Smith was a capable person of many things. Unfortunately being a baseball GM was not one of them.  His talent though did lead the Twins to be able to draft Buxton. 

[Matt Johnson]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I don't think trading trading Santana was prudent. If they couldn't extend him (which was a shame), IMO it'd have been better to keep Santana for that extra year. Then offer him a QO, and if he accepts great if not we get an extra nice draft selection.

Yeah, that's 100% me buying into the narrative that some players are going to be too expensive for the Twins to keep when they reach free agency, so might as well trade them and get something in return. 

[big dog]

3 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I don't think trading trading Santana was prudent. If they couldn't extend him (which was a shame), IMO it'd have been better to keep Santana for that extra year. Then offer him a QO, and if he accepts great if not we get an extra nice draft selection.

I don't believe the qualifying offer was actually a thing until 2012.

https://www.mlb.com/news/history-of-mlb-qualifying-offer-decisions-c300602464

So I don't think expecting the team to have done that is reasonable. A better trade, however, would have been nice. Or even just keeping JJ Hardy instead of dumping him to be an All-Star in Baltimore

[Matt Johnson]

47 minutes ago, big dog said:

I don't believe the qualifying offer was actually a thing until 2012.

https://www.mlb.com/news/history-of-mlb-qualifying-offer-decisions-c300602464

So I don't think expecting the team to have done that is reasonable. A better trade, however, would have been nice. Or even just keeping JJ Hardy instead of dumping him to be an All-Star in Baltimore

Yeah, Carlos Gómez went and gave Milwaukee a half-decade of value (including a 7.6 WAR season) and J.J. Hardy was a stud in Baltimore. Somewhat reminiscent of trading Graig Nettles for Luis Tiant only to have both become all-time greats for other teams. 

[dxpavelka]

Trading Santana was not more prudent than trading Berrios.  Both of them ultimately ended up signing contracts that we could / should easily have matched.  Sure SWR had a nice season, three years later.  And yet it wasn't enough to keep the fan base from wanting a trade for a pitcher to push him down the rotation. 

[old nurse]

4 hours ago, Matt Johnson said:

Yeah, that's 100% me buying into the narrative that some players are going to be too expensive for the Twins to keep when they reach free agency, so might as well trade them and get something in return. 

Santana turned down a 4 year 80 million contract with the Twins   The narrative was not that he was too expensive. He kind of made it clear he wasn’t going to sign here 

[Castinofan]

The Yankees and the Red Sox made good offers for Santana,  but right after their GMs met with each other,  those offers were rescinded. Twins were left with only the crummy offer from the Mets.  But if course there was no collusion.  ....

[Seth Stohs]

#PerhamRepresent

Wayne Caughey was easily the best player I played against in townball. Great hitter. Great shortstop. He was already 45 but he was so smooth. He would come help our high school team too with fielding work, etc.