Johan Santana Can't Catch a Break

Almost one year ago to the day, I knew Johan Santana was gone. The Minnesota Twins had let yet another trading deadline go by and their superstar pitcher finally let his unhappiness be known.

Why waste time when you're talking about something that's always going to be like that? It's never going to be beyond this point. It doesn't make any sense for me to be here, you know?

Santana wanted to go somewhere that would pay him what he is worth, and somewhere where he would get the run support he deserved.

Can you really blame him?

Santana won two Cy Young awards over the past three years, and was robbed of the other, yet he found himself trapped on Twins teams that couldn't seem to win in the playoffs.

Even worse, the 2007 Twins missed the postseason entirely. So, rather than squeeze one more year of out of their ace, the Twins made the smart move and dealt Santana to one of the three teams he wanted to go to: the New York Mets.

"He wants to win. He's got his eyes on not only winning but collecting a bunch of Cy Youngs on his way and bringing home some championships for our fans," Jeff Wilpon said.

Santana was the latest in a series of high profile moves by Mets GM Omar Minaya who said he was supposed to be the final piece in the Mets' championship puzzle, but fate seems to have intervened.

The Mets have played much better since the Willie Randolph distraction ended, but still find themselves 2.5 games behind the Phillies and just .5 game ahead of the Marlins. According to ESPN, their playoff odds sit at about 35%.

What about the team Santana left?

The Minnesota Twins are shocking the pundits once again. They lead the AL Central by .5 game, they have a 56% chance of making the playoffs, and they have a run differential a full six runs better than the Mets have.

Johan rarely got the run support he deserved from the Twins. Four times last year, Johan lost a game in which he gave up two or fewer runs. Surely he thought those days were over when he signed with a team that boasted Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado et. al.

This year, however, he has already three such losses and the Mets have lost an additional four games where Johan gave up two or fewer, only to have the bullpen waste his effort.

The season is far from over, the Mets well may make the playoffs and the Twins may fade down the stretch, but one has to wonder if Johan will come to regret his decision to burn his bridge with the Twins.

This article quoted from this piece from the Star Tribune. Also quoted was: This AP story.