Johan Santana and a red light

So it seems the Yankees have bailed out of the Johan Santana sweepstakes, leaving only their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox as the main contenders for this former Cy Young award winner. Boston landing Santana would mean their starting rotation would consist of Josh Beckett (perhaps the best postseason player in all of baseball?), Santana, Dice-K, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield, with Jonathon Papelbon as their closer. I can't say I know that much about baseball history, but I would bet that those 5 players might make up the best starting rotation in the history of the game.

However, it is not a given this will even happen as Minnesota might still hang on to Johan (he still has one more year left on his contract) if they don't feel they are getting a good enough deal. Also, the yankees might change their minds and try to get back if only to prevent the sox from getting him. After they flip flopped on the A-Rod situation, I wouldn't be surprised if they changed their mind on this. The Twins wanted Melky, Hughes and Kennedy but the Yanks weren't willing to let go of all three. With Rodriguez, Posada, Mo, and Petite all coming back, the young guns only getting better and Roger Clemens leaving, they have all the pieces in place to make a serious run at a Boston team that looked nearly invincible at times in the playoffs. They are getting to be an old team, so it will be interesting to see whether the Steinbrenners are willing to mortgage a good chunk of their young talent for a sure fire ace in the hopes that he can lead them to a championship in 2008.