Yesterday Smith rejected the proposal, one to which the Yankees refused to add pitching prospect Ian Kennedy in a package that included top pitching prospect Phil Hughes and outfielder Melky Cabrera, and Steinbrenner conceded that the Yankees were no longer in the bidding for the two-time Cy Young Award winner.
If Steinbrenner can be taken at his word - and there is evidence suggesting that is a debatable proposition - then it would seem that Smith was left to decide whether the Red Sox had offered him sufficient talent to part with Santana, who is eligible for free agency after the 2008 season and already has been deemed too expensive for the Twins to re-sign.
In the couple of months since taking over from predecessor Terry Ryan, Smith has not been timid. He made a major trade last week, sending top pitching prospect Matt Garza to Tampa Bay for promising outfielder Delmon Young, in an attempt to ease the sting of losing popular center fielder Torii Hunter, who signed a five-year, $90 million deal as a free agent with Anaheim.
Now he's faced with what could be a franchise-shaping trade for two teams: shipping Santana to the Red Sox, giving them the most formidable pitching staff in baseball, for a package of prospects that will determine the course of the future for the Twins, who are scheduled to move into a new ballpark in 2009. Late Monday night, Smith requested and received medical reports on Sox lefthander Jon Lester, a procedural move that is part of most trade negotiations but signaled that talks with the Sox had reached a serious stage.
Lester has been identified as the centerpiece of a four-player package that reportedly includes center fielder Coco Crisp, made expendable by the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury; 6-foot-6-inch Justin Masterson, a sinkerballer who started in the Sox system but projects as a reliever for most clubs; and Jed Lowrie, a former Stanford star who plays both shortstop and second but likely will play second in the big leagues, with his bat his best asset.
