Alex Anthopoulos Speaks on Ervin Santana

Alex Anthopoulos was on the Jeff Blair show and, as always, Alex managed to talk a lot without saying all that much. What he did say:

• He said that Ervin Santana decided that it would be in his best interest to pitch in the NL. That's very true. I said last week, that if I was Santana, I'd go to the Mariners and see how much they would pay me. He is going to be a free agent again next year, he'll want good stats to sell help sell himself, though it is hard to imagine he could have a better year than than last year.
• Alex pretty much said that he thought they had a deal with Ervin on the weekend. He did sound kind of bitter that Santana backed out on the deal. I do think that if they thought they had a deal, they should have got it signed. Things happen quickly during spring training. Until something is signed, you don't have a deal.
• Alex talked about how tough it is to sign free agent pitchers with us playing in the AL East and playing in our ballpark.
• He also said that our park, our division makes it easier to sign free agent hitters, not that we've signed many free agent hitters. Maybe Drew is still a possibility?
• I thought Alex was doing ok, then he went and said how excited he is to see Ricky Romero pitch today, because his second inning, in his last appearance, was the 'best he seen him pitch in two years'. That was a dumb thing to say, Alex is smart enough to know one inning means very little. And, he's gotta be smart enough to know that invoking Romero's name isn't going to help with an angry fanbase.
• Alex did seem pissed off about not getting Santana, but then he really has only himself to blame. He's the one that decided to 'wait out the market'. That strategy failed.

Personally, I didn't want Santana, but we very much needed a starting pitcher. We didn't get Garza, Tanaka, Jimenez or anyone in trade, so we were left with Santana. Then we swing and miss on him too. Not getting Santana isn't a huge loss, but after Alex told us that we needed a starting pitcher, not getting anyone hurts.

Santana wasn't going to be the difference between last place and first place. If you think they are going to finish last without him, then they were going to finish last with him.

What I don't want is Alex to make a panic trade. Let's not be trading Stroman or Sanchez just because we didn't get Santana.