http://www.courant.com/sports/baseball/hc-redsox1203.artdec03,0,914271.story
Both the Red Sox and Yankees upped the ante Sunday in their attempts to land Twins lefthander Johan Santana, but in decidedly different ways.
While the Red Sox sweetened their offer by including center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, the Yankees have set a deadline, saying they will withdraw their latest offer today if the Twins do not agree to it.
The Yankees are offering starter Phil Hughes, center fielder Melky Cabrera and another prospect for the two-time Cy Young Award winner. But Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said Sunday he will not allow the bidding war with the Red Sox to continue.
"I'm not going to be played against the Red Sox," Steinbrenner said. "That's not something the Yankees should ever do. ... If they want the best offer that has been offered to them, then they need to make up their minds. We need to get things straightened out and not wait around for them to run back to Boston and back to us, and then back to Boston. I'm not going to do that."
The winter meetings begin today in Nashville, but the Santana sweepstakes have been in play for a week. The Red Sox originally offered lefthander Jon Lester, center fielder Coco Crisp, minor league: infielder Jed Lowrie and either pitcher Michael Bowden or Justin Masterson.
The Red Sox reportedly changed the offer Saturday, adding Ellsbury but pulling back Lester. The Twins want a package that includes two of Boston's top prospects: Ellsbury, Lester and Clay Buchholz. The Red Sox will include only one.
The pressure on the Twins to act increased Sunday when FOXSports.com reported Santana will not waive his no-trade clause once the season begins. Santana becomes a free agent after the season.
Like the Red Sox, the Yankees are reluctant to include more than one of their top pitching prospects.
"I think our offer is the best offer," Steinbrenner told Newsday. "We have the best young pitchers in the game, even better than Boston."
an offer of Hughes, Melky & a 2nd tier prospect is a good offer for Johan considering the Twins' limited options, but if BOS caves & decides to include Lester along w/Ellsbury, then that is probably the better overall package & i'm sure MIN would agree... hopefully BOS sticks to their guns & Johan ends up coming to NY... i like Hughes but i don't ever think he'll be as good as Johan... lots of Yankee fans feel differently about Hughes' upside, but i don't see him as growing into the dominant "Roger Clemens" clone that he's been billed up as being... the fact that the Yankees consider Joba the untouchable & not Hughes should tell you all you need to know.
After 7 years & 40K+ posts, banned by martin for calling Nalod a 'moron'. Awesome.