Johan Santana gave up 3 earned runs in 2.0 innings pitched in his first grapefruit league appearance for the New York Mets. His line included 10 batters faced, 4 hits, 0 base on balls, 1 strikeout and 1 homerun surrendered to Juan Gonzalez.. That line gives Johan a meaningless grapefruit ERA of 13.50 so far this spring. Take from that outing what you want. Twist it and say "Johan is washed up and will never match what he did for the Twins" or maybe say "Johan’s best is yet to come, he will dominate the National League, these spring numbers mean nothing".

But if this is so meaningless you may ask why bother writing this at all. My answer to that is because people want to know what Johan did today, and I like writing and talking about baseball. We all want to speculate on what will be, what was lost, what was gained, and who will do what this year. That is the fun of baseball. None of it really matters for us observers, it’s just a release, hmmm…..a pastime one might say. Johan’s box score

Today the New York Mets organization held their press conference to introduce Johan Santana to the assembled media in New York. It looked like a packed house to meet Johan, but not so much of a top notch press conference. It seemed a bit confused and not so smooth. Johan did well though, maybe a tad nervous, but came off as a happy and down to earth guy, just as he did here in Minnesota. The Mets introduction of Johan Santana video is just about 30 minutes long and Johan appears just after the 11.00 minute mark.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today is reporting that the Minnesota Twins have traded Johan Santana to the New York Mets for 4 prospects including outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey.

My first reaction is why isn’t the Met’s top prospect outfielder Fernando Martinez included in the deal? Trading Johan and not getting a team’s top prospect for him indicates the Twins got stuck. It seems Twins GM Bill Smith should have pulled the trigger at the winter meetings and grabbed the Hughes deal from the Yankees or the Ellsbury or Lester from the Red Sox.

It’s time to digest this a bit, get a confirmation of the deal and see if Santana gets a contract signed with the Mets. I’ll get back to you with a some analysis and see where these guys will fit into the roster and lineup.