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Mets, Santana come to terms

BY KEN DAVIDOFF | ken.davidoff@newsday.com

February 2, 2008

The 72-hour window that terrified Mets fans turned into 73½ hours. But the window closed Friday evening with a sense of relief, and then jubilation.

The Mets made Johan Santana an extremely rich man, finalizing a six-year, $137.5-million contract that convinced the two-time Cy Young Award winner to waive his no-trade clause. That is the biggest overall package for a starting pitcher and marks the second-highest annual average value for one, behind the one-year, $28-million deal to which Roger Clemens agreed with the Yankees last year.

Santana will take his physical examination Saturday, and the Mets hope to officially announce the trade - which will send Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins - later Saturday afternoon. A news conference likely will be held at Shea Stadium during the middle of next week.

When the 5 o'clock deadline struck Friday, the Mets and Santana's agent, Peter Greenberg - in their third straight day of face-to-face meetings in Manhattan - still hadn't finalized an agreement. The Mets requested a two-hour extension of that window, which Major League Baseball approved, and as it turned out, they didn't even need the full two hours. At about 6:30, the Mets began notifying the media that they had concluded negotiations with Santana.

The two sides went into these negotiations with clear agendas. The Mets, having offered Barry Zito a five-year contract last winter, wanted to stick to their policy of a maximum five-year commitment to pitchers. Santana and his representatives wanted to pass the $150-million mark.

Ultimately, and not surprisingly, both sides bent. The Mets guaranteed a sixth year and Santana settled for a smaller total package. There is a seventh-year team option for 2014 for $18.75 million, however, that includes a $5.5-million buyout. If the Mets exercise that option, Santana will have hit his number, with a final tally of $150.75 million.

The Mets have a strong relationship with Greenberg, who also represents Jose Reyes, so although the discussions were tense, they never grew ugly, and both sides kept relatively quiet to the media. Santana himself entered the negotiating room for the final hours, a sign of the pitcher's desire to control his own destiny.

Once Santana passes his physical, it will culminate general manager Omar Minaya's least likely pursuit. When Minaya announced at the offseason's outset that he wanted to acquire a frontline starting pitcher, most industry officials thought he would fail at that mission because of a paucity of trading chips. But the Yankees lost interest in Santana once Andy Pettitte announced his return, withdrawing their offer of Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera, and the Red Sox, floating separate packages topped by Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester, lost interest when the Yankees lost interest.

The Twins, spurned by the Mets in their quest to acquire Reyes, could have kept Santana for 2008, as they had him signed to a reasonable $13.25-million contract (to which, it's believed, the Mets added a signing bonus). But the Twins had made the internal decision to move on without Santana, fearing that his impending free agency would distract the club. Torii Hunter's walk-year status created negative energy throughout the clubhouse in 2007, club officials felt.

That left Minaya and the Mets, and Minaya even managed to retain outfielder Fernando Martinez and pitcher Mike Pelfrey (whom the Twins didn't particularly like). And so what was a largely unsatisfying winter for Minaya and Mets fans became a thrilling one in a short span.

Notes & quotes: The Mets signed lefthanded reliever Pedro Feliciano to a one-year, $1.025- million contract, avoiding arbitration. They have three arbitration-eligible players remaining who are unsigned, pitchers Oliver Perez and Jorge Sosa and outfielder Ryan Church.

This story was supplemented by an Associated Press report.

Mounds of money

Top five biggest packages given to a pitcher in overall dollars (in millions):

$137.5, 6 Years, Johan Santana, Mets

$126, 7 Years, Barry Zito, Giants

$121, 8 Years, Mike Hampton, Rockies

$105, 7 Years, Kevin Brown, Dodgers

$91.5, 5 Years, Carlos Zambrano, Cubs