Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano were the main sources of the Twins' miracle comeback in the 2006 season. The run started from 25-33 in June and for two months, Santana and Liriano refused to lose. As we all recall, Liriano broke down in early August and wound up with Tommy John surgery during the offseason.
Santana was the hottest commodity on the trade market after the 2007 season. Legend has it, the Twins wanted both pitcher Jon Lester and center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury as the keys to a trade with Boston. If the Twins had settled for one, and a package of others, it would have been a fine trade.
They didn't, Boston pulled away, and the Twins were left scrambling to make a deal.
That's the legend, anyway. There are Boston people who will tell you that there was never a chance the Red Sox were going to trade Ellsbury, much-anticpated in New England as a star of the future.
Whatever, the Twins wound up trading their two-time Cy Young Award winner to the New York Mets for center fielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Kevin Mulvey, Phil Humber and Deolis Guerra. The potential standouts in this group were said to be Gomez and Guerra, a large, hard-throwing righthander in the low minors.
Humber pitched a perfect game. It was last April for the White Sox. He had been released by the Twins in August 2009.
Mulvey was exchanged for Arizona reliever Jon Rauch on Sept. 1, 2009. Rauch had 21 saves for the Twins in 2010 before Matt Capps was acquired from Washington on July 29.
Some people feel as if Twins World would be a better place today if the Twins had ridden it out with Rauch and retained catcher Wilson Ramos.