The Clock is ticking...

IMAGE: LEO REYNOLDS FROM FLICKR


All of us over here at the Harbor are really hoping that that premature jersey order didn't jinx anything...

These negotiations have very quickly degenerated into another speculation parade. You can see what John Heyman says here, or what Ben Shpigel says here, or what Jayson Stark says here, or if you really want to waste your time, you can read this, by Buster Olney (second entry down).

Thing is, just like every article over the last 2 months that speculated on where Johan would eventually be traded, all of these articles say the same thing, kinda differently.

Point is, in spite of the little man that is always inside of me that yells "the end is near" in relation to all things baseball, this deal will be done. Period.

It's not even worth going over, again, what a massive PR nightmare the Mets would undergo if it fell through. They knew what he wanted before they got him, and they wouldn't have done it if they weren't prepared to pay.

And the fact that the negotiations are ongoing, and probably will be until the very last second, makes complete sense, objectively. Santana, or rather his reps, have established a desired monetary total and a desired total of year. Seeing as they do hold most of the cards, though not all of them, what with Johan's desire to get this done as well, their demand is really the starting point. Omar, or Fred, or whoever the heck is in there, most likely rebutted with an offer as unreasonably low as Santana team's was high. From there, they bicker, compare, laugh, eat, take bathroom breaks, yell and sleep, and with each passing hour each side pulls the other side progressively closer to their desired goal. At any point before about 4pm on Friday, today, if either side says, "that sounds great, we'll take it", they've cheated themselves out of more valuable time to either raise (in the case of Santana's boys) or lower (in the case of the Mets) the opposing side's offer.

So in my mind, that's what's really going down here, and any further speculation on the parts of Olney, Stark, Heyman, etc. is there to get some more browser hits and stir up some noise. I'm pretty sure that neither Omar Minaya nor Peter Greenberg is regularly excusing himself from the negotiation table to go call Buster Olney and let him know what's going on.

It'll all be done today. They'll have a press conference after the Super Bowl, pending a physical.

Cue the weekend Olney blog entry: Unnamed sources have told me that Johan Santana might have a mild but rapidly progressive case of scoliosis...