Imminent Move? Obviously Not . . .

Yesterday, I openly asked whether the Twins decision to remove Chris Basak from the 40-man roster wan an indication of an imminent trade announcement. That has fairly definitively been answered in the negative over the past 24 hours. A day ago, the momentum seemed to be building towards a trade with the Red Sox centered either on Jon Lester or Jacoby Ellsbury -- but nothing materialized, and momentum now seems to have swung hard the other way. Peter Gammons of ESPN was on the radio this morning (and on ESPN.com) saying that most people in Nashville now think that the Twins will leave the winter meetings without a deal, and that Santana will be a Twin in 2008. Other sources, however, have indicated that teams like the Mets and possibly the Angels (although they've denied it) are now trying to swoop in and get Santana, so it's hard to tell what exactly is going on.

So here's what I'm going to do -- this will be my last post on a Santana trade unless a deal goes down or things develop in such a way that it appears there's no longer any possibility of a trade. My last word on the subject -- for now -- is to reiterate what I've been saying all along: the Twins need to trade Santana now to maximize his value, and I strongly believe that it would be a mistake to keep him for 2008. This is not an easy decision, and I can't criticize Bill Smith for not pulling the trigger on a deal. He and I appear to disagree on the need for a trade, but he's not being stupid or foolish even if a deal doesn't get done. We are, after all, talking about one of the best pitchers in the game, and in the context that Bill Smith stepped into -- new ballpark about to go up, Torii Hunter leaving via free agency -- there are plenty of factors that support keeping Santana around. If a deal appears to be dead in a week or so, I'll go into more depth on why I think it was a mistake not to make a move despite those factors. For now, I'll just sit back and hope that something happens, because I think a trade is in the best interests of the team in the long term.