This trade seems analogous to the 1999 deal in which Seattle sent Ken Griffey Jr. to Cincinnati for Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko and two minor-leaguers:
1. Like Griffey, Santana essentially acted as his own general manager, dictating restrictive terms for any trade. Like Griffey, he was able to do so because he was coming up for free agency in a year and would command a price on the open market his team didn't feel it could pay. Reports are that Santana would only allow trades or New York or Boston.
2. Minnesota, like Seattle, overplayed its hand by pushing for an organization's top prospects during the winter meetings. That led to Santana, like Griffey, becoming disenchanted with his team and stepping in to force a resolution before spring training. Once teams saw that a trade was being forced, they pulled their top prospects back off the table until only one team — the Mets in Santana's case, the Reds in Griffey's case (which is who he wanted to be with all along) — were left standing. At that point, both teams pretty much had no choice but to accept the meager (at the time) packages they were being offered. (In Seattle's case, Cameron blossomed, and everybody else sucked.)
The Santana teams makes the other blockbuster on the table — Seattle's offer of premium prospect Adam Jones, top situational lefty George Sherill and two (and possibly three) Top 10 lower-minors prospects for Orioles pitcher Erik Bedard — look like a royal screwing of the Mariners. Of course, the dynamics are different, as Seattle fundamentally misunderstands the market and as such, nobody is forcing this trade but executives desperate to save their jobs after mismanaging the organization into certain oblivion.
The Mariners say they need to make this deal to be a contender in 2008. The reality is that the Bedard deal gives the Mariners two #1 pitchers, two #4s (Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn), a weakened bullpen, a open wound at first base in Richie Sexson, a near-washout at second in Jose Lopez, and complete vacancies in left and right field. (Although, granted, Ichiro is perfectly capable of playing all three positions at once.)
Remember the good old days when trades were made as pure exchanges of talent? The Santana deal (and the Bedard one, if it happens) represent poisonous political maneuverings at their most cynical and corrupt.
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