Charlie Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports the Red Sox are not budging from their Jon LEster/Coco Crisp/Jed Lowrie/Justin Master offer for Johan Santana. He uses "adamant" to describe the opposition of the the Red Sox to substitute Jacoby Ellsbury for Coco.
Mr. Walters also suggests, as Joe Christensen of the competitor newspaper did, that the trade could happen very soon. He reports "within days."
As for a dark horse team, Mr. Walters offers the Angels based on their from-the-weeds strike on Torri Hunter. The Angels can lead with a package of Brandon Wood and Reggie Willits, but I wonder if the recent signings of former Astros, Adam Everett and Mike Lamb, make that less appealling to the Twins.