Santana's suitors keep Twins on speed dial

ORLANDO - From all accounts, the Twins stayed consistent throughout the general managers meetings on the Johan Santana issue, saying the same things to the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox that GM Bill Smith said publicly:

The goal is to re-sign Santana, not trade him.

However, before the meetings ended Thursday, a few teams urged the Twins to alert them if that stance changes. In coming weeks, it very well could.

While the prevailing opinion all week was that the lefthander would remain with the Twins, at least until midseason, a few baseball officials had different impressions. "I think Santana will be moved for sure," Phillies GM Pat Gillick told USA Today.

While Smith and his top lieutenants here, including special adviser and ex-GM Terry Ryan, sounded committed to signing Santana, some within the organization acknowledged that will be almost impossible.

There are strong internal opinions that the team should openly encourage trade offers, the way the Florida Marlins did this week with third baseman Miguel Cabrera.

Indications are the Twins will not offer Santana a five-year extension. If they play this hand the way they have with current free agents Torii Hunter and Carlos Silva, they will make another below-market offer -- one that Santana barely considers while waiting to hit the open market.

But by at least making the offer this month, the Twins would be positioned to hold a Santana sweepstakes at the winter meetings, Dec. 3-6 in Nashville.

Specifically, the Yankees plan on making a strong push if the two-time Cy Young Award winner becomes available. They appeared to be holding back their top prospects in the Cabrera discussions to make a run at Santana.

It's complicated because Santana has a complete no-trade clause. Any team that trades for him almost certainly would have to include a contract extension, and with all that leverage, Santana could ask for $150 million.

The free-agent pitching market is so weak, he remains one of the most important pieces of the offseason puzzle, not just for the Twins but the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox.

Smith refuses to sound hurried. Before leaving Thursday, he said there is no urgency to open the Santana negotiations before the winter meetings.

"The critical thing is to be ready for Opening Day, and in Johan Santana's case, he's signed for one more year," Smith said. "I'm not afraid to go into the season with it [unresolved]."

The Twins would like to reunite the 1-2 punch of lefties Santana and Francisco Liriano, but the team's internal skeptics have noted Liriano might start 2008 at Class AAA Rochester while finishing his recovery from reconstructive elbow surgery.

How happy would Santana be if he loses longtime teammates Hunter and Silva and enters the year surrounded by inexperience?

Unless the Twins believe they can build a championship contender with their other moves, why risk the chance of Santana having another slow start -- by his standards -- and diminishing his trade value?

The Oakland Athletics came to a similar crossroads with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder in 2004, and traded both starting pitchers within a shocking three-day span that December.

"For us, it wasn't the individual players, it was more of where our club was," A's GM Billy Beane said. "If we went status quo with that team, we were going to see a significant decline.

"The tough thing with being in a Minnesota and Oakland market is when you hit bottom, you hit with a thud. And you usually don't bounce.

"So you've got to do some things that are preemptive, as opposed to reactive. For us it was, we need to do this now, even if it's a year early, otherwise we're going to steamroll and hit the bottom."

In 2004, the A's missed the playoffs for the first time in five years, despite winning 91 games.

Without Hudson and Mulder, they still won 88 games in 2005, and they returned to the playoffs in 2006. Dan Haren, whom they had acquired from St. Louis in the Mulder trade, pitched the clinching victory over the Twins in the division series.

Beane braced himself for public backlash of those trades. He said he joked with his owner that December was a good month to move because the sports world was focused on football.

"Listen, it would have been harder to make the deals if I was a first-year GM," Beane said. "... But if you know you're going to do it, worrying about what somebody's going to say or write is not necessarily the way decisions should be made."

In his second month on the job, Smith has shown no hint of fear. But critical decisions lie ahead.

Note

• Longtime Twins scout Larry Corrigan, who resigned Monday, joined the Pittsburgh Pirates as a special assistant to GM Neal Huntington.

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com