I can’t help but wait to see the words “Santana Traded to [insert team here]” on the front page of the StarTribune in the next couple of days.  At this point, it seems inevitable to me that the Cy-Young award winning pitcher will soon be leaving the friendly confines of the Metrodome for either Yankee or Fenway stadiums.

If Santana’s days as a Twin truly are numbered I am forced to look into the future to see what our lineup will likely be like without the best pitcher in baseball.  So as I look into my crystal ball, I see the following lineup next season:

Castilla

Mauer

Young

Cuddyer

Morneau

Boucher (or third baseman to be named later)

DH (either Kubel or possibly Monroe if he isn’t released)

CF (to be named later)

Harris

It is very apparent that with any trade for Santana that we address 3b and/or CF.  If I was a betting man (which I am) I would think that we’ll fill the CF spot with CoCo Crisp.  With that we’ll likely also get Jon Lester out of the deal….  Lester will be a very servicable pitcher who will fit in nicely next to Boof, Baker, Slowey and Perkins.  While our pitching rotation will be very young and inexperienced, I believe that we will have the pieces necessary to be compeditive.  CoCo is a good option at CF because he has a VERY user friendly contract for the upcoming years with 4.75M and 5.75M in 2008 and 2009.  That will allow the Twins to work a longer term contract with him if needed or bring up someone from the Minors to replace him in the new stadium. 

When all is said and done, our offense should be much more effective/powerful and even with the loss of Santana we still have 4 other pitchers who will be able to let us compete. 

It’s official.  The sun has set on Torii Hunter and the Minnesota Twins.  The 7-time Gold Glove winner will be leaving the not so friendly confines of the H.H.H. Metrodome in exchange for Edison Field in Sunny and traffic congested Anaheim California!  Some of the reactions in the blog-o-sphere have been negative towards Torii and the Twins for not making something happen.  A few thoughts:

• Torii’s new deal is rediculous.  His other suiters offered him 4 and 5 year deals in the 65-80 million dollar range.  The Angels came out of left field (yes, just like the movie) and swooped in with their 5 year contract worth 90 million.  This contract has an option for a 6th year and includes a NO TRADE CLAUSE! Wow!  He couldn’t turn that down….  Baseball is a very fickle business and afterall……he has to feed his family!  [somewhere Latrell Spreewell is sitting in his manion…..wondering what’s for dinner].
• The Twins are also not fools.  They were not about to budge from their 3 year, 40 million dollar deal.  Personally, I wish that they would have gone to 4 years and around 55 million.  That might have been a risk on their part but I am wondering if Torii would have been more inclined to stay with such a deal.
• This certainly made a splash in the free agent market….  Now guys like Mike Cameron, Andru Jones and even Aaron Rowand will certainly get their cash….
• I have little faith that we’ll have anybody decent patrolling the Dome next summer.  We might be able to make a trade for CoCo Crisp but….. he won’t be Torii.
• I also forsee the Twins dumping Santana this year (or even this offseason).  After all, Torii left and we won’t get anything more than a first round draft pick next year for him.  The Twins will likely learn from this mistake and make a monster trade to get prospects and sluggers for him.  After all, if we sign Santana we’ll still lose every 5th game byt he score of 2-1 or 3-2 due to our lack of production.