And your winner is ..THE METS

The winner in the Johan Santana sweepstakes is the Mets. The Mets agreed to a four for one player swap today with the Twins. The Mets now have 72 hours to negotiate a deal with Santana. Santana will receive a deal similar to the Barry Zito deal, which was seven years and 126 million dollars.

This deal is a huge win for the METS, who needed a front line starter more than any other team involved in the Santana sweepstakes. This move could propel the Mets to their first World Series since 2000.

The Mets are receiving Santana in his prime, 28, with two CY Youngs under his belt already. Santana has pitched over 200 innings the last four years, and has an ERA under 3.00, three out of the last four years. Last year was a bad year for him, his ERA was 3.33. These numbers would have been the best on the Mets staff last season.Tom Glavine was the only pitcher on the Mets staff last season to top 200 innings. He pitched 200.1. Glavine is no longer with the Mets, he signed with Atlanta.

Santana will also be the stopper in the Mets rotation, that will prevent PRO-LONGED losing streaks. Mets fan need not to worry about a collapse like last season with Santana on the pitching staff.

With every deal, there has to be a loser and the Twins are the loser in this deal. The Twins waited to long to deal Santana. This package of prospects are inferior to that of the one offered by the Yankees and Red Sox in December. The Twins were hoping the Red Sox and Yankees would enter a bidding war over Santana driving the price up for each team. In the end, the Twins had to deal Santana or let him walk after this season. Santana would have not re-signed with the TWINS.

The Twins took the best deal still on the table which was the METS deal.