Johan Santana Leaves Loyalty in Minnesota

There are some things I’ll just never understand: girls, wearing shorts when it’s 10 degrees outside because “you’re tough and cool at the same time," a foreign language and the market in professional sports, particularly baseball.

Assuming pitcher Johan Santana and the New York Mets agree to a multi-year contract extension over the next few days, the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner will no longer be a Minnesota Twin.

Why? The reason is quite simple: money.

Santana wanted more than the four-year, $80 million extension Minnesota offered him, which came before new GM Bill Smith inked Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau to long-term deals.

And why shouldn’t he?

After all, he is arguably the best pitcher in the game today, and if the supply meets his demand, he could very well wind up as the highest paid pitcher in all of baseball and the second highest paid player behind Alex Rodriguez.

But to me, the question isn’t, "Why he shouldn’t take the money and run?"  It’s, "Why should he?"

Santana grew up in the mountains of Venezuela playing baseball on the sandlot for fun. He never dreamed about playing professionally; he didn’t even know what Major League Baseball was. No, Santana’s destiny, so he thought, lied in becoming an electrical engineer just like his father.

Truth be told, if it hadn’t been for the persistence of Houston Astros scout Andres Reiner, who not only made the 10-hour trek through mountainous countryside to the small-town of Tovar, but also incessantly begged the organization for money to go, Santana may have followed in his father’s footsteps.

Houston gave up on Santana after four inconsistent years with its minor-league affiliates. The Florida Marlins then selected the youngster in the 1999 Rule V draft and subsequently traded him to the Minnesota Twins.

As you very well know, the risk reaped great reward for both the Minnesota Twins organization and Santana over the next seven seasons.

When the time came to offer an extension to its ace this off-season, Minnesota did the right thing; it offered Santana a lucrative, by the Twins’ standards, $80 million over four years.

Santana refused.

"Add another year and another $20-plus million and we’ll talk,” was the simplified version of his response.

Whatever happened to loyalty or humility? What ever happened to sticking with an organization that stuck its neck out for you?

I guess checkbooks and “market value” do the talking in baseball, leaving little room for the intangibles that made you.