Are the Twins overplaying their hand in the Johan Santana trade talks?

It's possible. That thought came Monday, when ESPN.com ran the headline, "Source: Yankees again backing away from Santana."

If the Yankees ever truly reached the point of no return, it would theoretically cripple the Twins' leverage.

The Red Sox just won the World Series, and they have plenty of pitching to win again this year. They might want Santana, but they don't need him.

Their main goal has been keeping him away from the Yankees.

Meanwhile, the Mets need Santana desperately. But if the Red Sox and Yankees don't step forward with better offers, the Mets might not either.

When the Mets offered Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra, the Twins asked them to throw in top prospect Fernando Martinez. The Mets are holding their ground, offering Gomez but not Martinez.

The Newark Star-Ledger reported in today's editions that the Mets prefer Baltimore's Erik Bedard to Santana, as Bedard wouldn't require a big contract extension to complete the deal.

If a collapsing market caused the Mets to reduce their offers, an argument could be made that the Twins overplayed their hand. Some will argue they should have taken the best offer they had at the winter meetings and been done with this.

But the Twins seem confident they still have three interested teams. To them, the Santana situation is still status quo.

Citing a baseball official with knowledge of the talks, ESPN Radio (AM-1050) in New York reported Monday that the Yankees had pulled their offer with Phil Hughes off the table.

The New York Times has reported that the Hughes offer hasn't been available since the winter meetings.

"It's most likely that we're going to stay with what we've got," Yankees Senior Vice President Hank Steinbrenner told The Times on Monday. "That always can change -- of course, that's up to Minnesota -- but there were no offers on the table. You don't make an offer unless you 100 percent intend to do it, and the final decision hasn't been made."

The Associated Press also reported Steinbrenner saying Monday night that no decision had been reached, and that the Yankees and Twins remained in discussions -- "There's still a little talk back and forth," he said.

The Twins seem confident they could bring the Yankees back with one phone call. Asked about the earlier ESPN headline, Twins General Manager Bill Smith said, "I'm not going to start responding to every report coming out of New York or Boston."

These teams have discussed countless scenarios. The Twins know the deals the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets would do, and vice versa.

No matter how much their patience is being tested, the Twins are waiting for these teams to come to them.

Asked if he can foresee a point where the Twins will announce they are no longer listening to offers for Santana, Smith said, "You never want to lock yourself out of an opportunity to make yourself better."

Smith disagreed with the theory that if certain teams pull out, the Santana market could collapse.

"Anybody who makes a trade for him is going to do it because it makes them better," he said. "We're not talking about a fourth starter here. We're talking about the best pitcher in the game."

That's a pretty good sign that the Twins won't lower their ultimate asking price to take an offer they can't stomach. Santana still could be their Opening Night starter March 31.

And that's the worst-case scenario.

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com