While you were watching the Grammy Award show last night, our colleague from MLB Daily Dish Chris Coltillo reported that Ervin Santana was drawing interest from a bunch of teams not named the "Blue Jays". Cotillo heard, from "a source with direct knowledge of the situation" (Jay Alou perhaps?), that Santana has interest from as many as eight teams.
The high level of interest may be due to a reported slash in Santana's asking price. The right-handed pitcher was priced at $112 million before Christmas but didn't sell well, as all the shoppers were waiting to see how much that much-hyped Japanese import was going to cost. Masahiro Tanaka cost way more than anyone expected so the rich spoiled kid got him. By that time, the rollback on Santana had already begun, with his people stepping back to a $60 million figure. Then, just yesterday, it was revealed that the Canadian guys who live in Milwaukee were able to get Matt Garza for four years at just $50 million (that's $200,000 in Canadian Tire Money back if they pay by cash).
Another drop in asking price for Santana must be happening, no? Remember, not only does one need to fork over cash for him, one must also give up a (note: I ran out of shopping analogies right at this point) first-round draft pick in 2014. He might even have to agree to some team options at the end of his fourth year.
One of Cotillo's other sources, who I will out as Captain Obvious, said that the Blue Jays were the "most obvious fit" for Santana and that "the fans in Toronto will be very disappointed" if neither Santana nor Ubaldo Jimenez lands with the Jays in 2014. My source--callers on the Sportsnet Radio 590 the FAN--tells me that the fans in Toronto will be very disappointed unless Santana and Jimenez and Stephen Drew were wearing a Blue Jays uniform. And maybe swap that damn complaining Jose Bautista for someone like Mike Trout. And fire Gibby.
Anyway, yes, it's true that the Blue Jays sure could use another starting pitcher, and remember that the savvy Alex Anthopoulos has an advantage over the other folks sniffing at Santana: the Blue Jays sucked so much last year they qualified for a special coupon that let them only give up a second-round pick if they signed Santana. However, they seem to think that they can wait it out and hope the price continues to fall as we near spring training.
Totally 100% legit screenshot from Alex Anthopoulos's laptop.So what number is Anthopoulos waiting for? Something like the $40 million over three years that Bob Dutton reported? Maybe the strategy is to wait for Santana's price to keep going down then take those numbers to the Jimenez camp? I have a hard time thinking that final figure for Santana would be as low as Dutton's report, but who knows? Certainly not me (nor too many people outside of 1 Blue Jays Way). It does appear that one of the Blue Jays' strategies this whole offseason was to take it easy and wait for prices to fall (I mean, Anthopoulos actually said that) so we'll see how long the Blue Jays will stay in this reverse auction and whether they will be able to pounce before some other team does.