The Trades You Don't Make

"Johan Santana to the Red Sox is all but done. Jon Lester, a center fielder, Justin Masterson and Ryan Kalish are the package." Will Carroll 12/5/07

Chances are Will Carroll was just full of crap and the above deal was some GM just feeding him a jape. Carroll blocked me on Twitter cause I called him on his crap once. But the journalistic ethics of Will Carroll are not why I dredged up this old chestnut. The reason I brought this up is to praise Theo Epstein and the Boston Red Sox.

Can you imagine how the Twins would be doing if the above trade was actually made? Jon Lester is 6-1 with a 3.68 ERA while Justin Masterson is 5-2 with a 2.50 ERA. Those 11 combined wins are almost as many as the Twins have managed all season (15). The centerfielder mentioned would have been either Coco Crisp or Jacoby Ellsbury.

In actuality Johan Santana was traded by the Twins to the Mets for Deolis Guerra, Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey. Quite a big difference isn't it?

Three years later the only GM in this deal who looks good is Theo Epstein. For the deal he never made - or possible never even discussed.