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Off the top of my head, I’d say the big winners here were the Mets and the Indians.

Why the Mets? That should be fairly obvious I think.

Why the Indians? Well, because a Central Division foe just lost a Cy Young winner.

But the Indians beat him like a drum last season! Yes, that is true. The Indians had great success against Santana…last season! Which of course is not a true indicator of how well they would have fared this year.

In addition, by sending him to the Mets the Red Sox and Yankees do not get significantly better. Talk about your win-win! Let’s face it, the only time we’ll have to worry about Santana is the All-Star game, and a highly unlikely Mets-Indians World Series. I’ll take my chances there. There is a downside however.

What downside? You just made it sound great?!? Well, there is the matter of Santana’s contract extension. What does that have to do with the Indians?? Quite a bit actually. With the figures that Santana is asking for, in the neighborhood of six years, $150 million, he is in a sense establishing the price for C.C. Sabathia.

Is that a good thing? Well, probably not. The Indians certainly will not pay Sabathia that much. Most likely he will ask for something shy of the $150 million, but I can’t imagine him being satisfied with anything less than 5 years. Will the Indians commit $20 million a year for 5 years? I highly question that.

So the Indians may end up losers in the Santana sweepstakes? Not this year. And no matter who landed Santana he was going to get that money anyway. I’m just glad he’s going to the NL.

Me too!

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