ESPN's Buster Olney had a clever take on the Johan Santana situation. He compared Twins' GM Bill Smith and the deals he has lost to a contestant on "Deal Or No Deal". By choosing "No Deal", Smith has lost out on the $1,000,000 offers. By refusing the offers, he has lost the $750,000 suitcase, too.
Buster suggest Smith should continue to chose "No Deal" under the assumption the Twins can wait until the season begins and hope any of the big three suitors (Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and new York Mets) suffer competitive disadvantages that will send them slinking back to the Twins with good offers in hand. As an example, he uses a lawyered-up Andy Pettitte distracted into incompetence that forces the Yankees to concede Phil Hughes and Ian kennedy for Santana.
Is is reasonable to expect offers for Santana to contain multiple major league players once the season starts? Won't the Yankees have a hard time blowing two more holes in its rotation to plug another?
My position is the Twins will get nothing close to the packages that have been rumored to have been offered - a couple of 0-3 year major leagues plus two high-level, near-ready top prospects. That ship will have sailed once the season begins.
Fortunately for the Mets, their offer does not contain anyone expected to be integral pieces of a 2008 play-off run. Even then, anyone think Phil Humber or Mike Pelfrey are available in June if either is pitching well for the Mets or if Carlos Gomez is hitting .285 and stealing bases with Jose Reyes when Alou gets hurt?