Look, let’s be serious and pragmatic at the same time. There’s a big ass contract here so we might as well give the guy a chance to pitch.
It is Johan Santana. A 50% Johan Santana is better than some of the guys this team has tried to sell us on in the last couple of years.
A lot of Mets fans thought they were going to see Santana pitch at the end of last season, but that was never in the plans. They did send him to pitch here in Savannah during their playoffs and only Savannah would punch out no additional attendance to see him start the game (no “Two For Tuesday”). The Sand Gnats actually asked him not to come back for a second game which spoke volumes to his rehab progress.
Still, as I said earlier, he is Johan Santana and, for that reason only, he’s my opening day pitcher. I mean, like, what’s the option?
My guess here is that Santana will go hot and cold during the first half of the season. I’m figuring in the 4.25 ERA range, but, he will become a trade factor once Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia start knocking on the fall door. The Mets will eat the majority of his remaining salary and deal him off for a prospect.
Was it a great trade. Hell yes. Sure, Phil Humber showed some spunk last season and Deolis Guerra is supposedly being reborn in the minors as a reliever, but the Mets lost nothing when they obtained one of the most exciting players in the game.
1 comment:
I don't know - $54 million, less than 90 starts and 40 wins over 4 seasons seems like a lot of lost time and money... Not to mention he has continued guaranteed money tying up payroll. The long term deal is biting the Met's at this point.
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