What had been a rather moribund Tuesday Afternoon in the office for me suddenly turned manic between 4:32 and 4:36pm, in which I received 4 phone calls and 2 text messages, the gist of which was something like this:
"JOHAN! WE GOT JOHAN!!!!!!!!!!!"
Thus ensuring that January 29, 2008 would go down with such days as December 23, 1999, May 22, 1998, December 10, 1984, June 15, 1983 and June 15, 1969 as Banner Days in Mets history, days in which masterful trades were made to acquire impact players that would unquestionably make the Mets a better team.
Yes, the deal is subject to Freddie and Omar being able to work out a contract extension, but the way this news has broken, and the way it has swept the Giants right off the back page, there's no way this deal isn't going to be consummated. If they screw it up, they may as well just move the team into a bunker for the 2008 season.
As I mentioned yesterday, the price the Mets put forth was indeed the right price. It's a steep one, no doubt, but considering that only Carlos Gomez has any tangible experience in the Majors, it's easy to consider this deal a victory for the Mets. Whatever Humber, Mulvey and Guerra amount to for Minnesota, it's academic. In New York, there is no patience for young players to marinate. The Mets had the other pieces in place, and they needed that one final piece to finish out the starting rotation. And say what you will about Philly's offense, I'll take the starting rotation of Johan, Pedro, Maine and Perez over the Pu-Pu platter of Hamels, Myers, Moyer and Kendrick any day. How about that for improvements? A 4th starter who won 15 games and had a 3.56 ERA last season.
So after months upon months of thinking that this was impossible, how the Mets didn't have the chips, how Johan was sure to go to Boston or the Yankees, how the Mets would be trotting out guys like Kyle Lohse, Livan Hernandez and Bartolo Colon in '08...The Misery can be put to rest, at least for the moment.
Johan Santana, in the words of Joe Buck, "WELCOME TO NEW YORK!"
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