2 of the greatest Mets trades went down as the worst nightmare for other teams

NY Mets trade with the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana is their franchise’s worst

I reached out to the good people over at Puckett’s Pond for some clarification on this. The Minnesota Twins haven’t had a particularly brutal history of trades. Concerned of some bias on my part, I pitched them a different deal only for them to hand me back this one with the Mets.

You know it and you love it. It’s the 2008 trade for Johan Santana.

Santana was nearing free agency and the Twins weren’t going to pay the price to keep him. So, moving on from the two-time Cy Young winner was a necessity. The Mets were willing to buy and extend Santana immediately. With his resume, the trade should have cost a lot more than it did.

The Mets gave up Carlos Gomez (well before he got good), Deolis Guerra, Phillip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey in the deal. This package appeared to be more about quantity than quality—at least when we look at the final results of the move.

Meanwhile, even if Santana didn’t sign an extension with the Mets, this goes down as such a bad move for the Twins. Santana’s best year with the Mets was in his first season. The Twins franchise should be left wondering a few “what ifs” with this deal. The very least of which, “what if we had actually gotten any good prospects at all?”