Good Luck Bill Smith

From ESPN:

In return for Santana, the Twins would receive center fielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra — a package which some talent evaluators believe could be the fourth-best offer that Minnesota received during this process.

HA! Smith held onto his pitcher for too long. He could have had Hughes and Melky for Santana, both of whom are major league players. I’m glad we got to keep these guys, but you have to wonder what the response is in Minnesota. Granted, good trades aren’t necessarily about the public’s response, and can only be judged in retrospect, but Phil Hughes was looked at as a can’t miss prospect (what were they thinking?).

Ken Rosenthal has a nice piece about this topic as well. He wonders if the package for Santana was enough. He wonders why the Twins didn’t acquire Mike Pelfrey. He wonders why Bill Smith waited so long to make a deal. Everyone should be wondering this.

Smith overplayed his hand. He was obviously waiting on the Yankees to fold, but they truly called his bluff, dropping out of the bidding in the end. In fact, if the Yankees would have offered a package of Ian Kennedy, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Marquez, one could debate as to whether or not that package is better than what the Mets gave up.

So, with that said, good luck Bill Smith (really). I wish you the best and I hope that you don’t get knocked out on one of the many mean streets in Minnesota.