Show NY Mets Santana agree a ree on year six-year deal for 1375 13 5 million Ken Davidoff The hour 72 window that terrified Mets fans turned into 73 2 1 hours But the window closed Friday evening with a sense of relief and then jubilation The Mets made Johan ohan J Santana an extremely rich man finalizing a year six-year million contract that convinced the t two two- vo- vo time Cy Young Award winner to waive his trade no-trade clause That is the biggest overall package for fora a starting pitcher and marks the second-highest second annual average value for one behind the one- one r. million 2 million deal to which Roger Clemens agreed with the Yankees last year Santana will take his physical examination Saturday and the Mets hope to officially announce the trade which will send Carlos Phil Gomez Deolis Guerra Humber and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins later later Saturday afternoon A news conference likely will be beheld beheld beheld held at Shea Stadium during the middle of next week When the 5 o'clock deadline struck Friday the Mets and Santana's agent Peter Greenberg in their third straight day to face-to-face meetings in of Manhattan still hadn't finalized an agreement The Mets requested a two-hour two extension of that window which Major League Baseball approved and as it turned out they didn't even need the full two hours At about the Mets began notifying the media that they had concluded negotiations with Santana The two sides went into these negotiations with clear agendas The Mets having offered Barry Zito a year five-year contract last winter wanted to stick to their policy of a maximum year five-year commitment to pitchers Santana and his representatives wanted to pass the million mark Ultimately and not surprisingly both sides bent The Mets guaranteed a sixth year and Santana settled for a smaller total package There is a year seventh-year team option for 2014 for 1875 million however that includes a million 55 buyout If the Mets exercise that option Santana will have hit his number with a final tally of million The Mets have a strong relationship with Greenberg who also represents Jose Reyes so although the discussions were tense they never grew ugly and both sides kept relatively quiet to the media Santana himself entered the negotiating room for the final hours a sign of the pitchers pitcher's desire to control his own destiny Once Santana passes his physical it will culminate General Manager Omar Minayas Minaya's least likely pursuit When Minaya announced at the outset that he wanted to acquire a frontline starting pitcher most industry officials thought he would fail at that mission because be ause of a paucity of trading chips But the Yankees lost interest in Santana once Andy announced his return withdrawing their offer of Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera and the Red Sox floating separate packages topped by Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester lost interest when the Yankees lost interest The Twins spurned by the Mets in their quest to acquire Reyes could have kept Santana for 2008 as they had him signed to a reasonable million 1325 contract to which its it's believed the Mets added a signing bonus But the Twins Twins' had made the internal decision to move on without Santana fearing that his impending free agency would distract the club Torii Toni Hunters Hunter's year walk-year status created negative energy throughout the clubhouse in 2007 club officials believed That left Minaya and the Mets and Minaya even managed to retain outfielder Fernando Martinez and pitcher Mike whom the Twins didn't particularly like And so what was a largely unsatisfying winter for Minaya and Mets fans became a thrilling one i in a short span |