Trade thoughts kept at arm's length
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - The planets were aligned. An ace who could have been pitching for the Red Sox was pitching against the Red Sox. A guy who could have been traded for the ace was pitching for the Red Sox. And another guy who could have been traded for the ace was the first batter of the game.
It was Johan Santana against Jon Lester at Tradition Field yesterday, and Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a sharp single to center on a 1-and-1 pitch.
Later in the day, all three denied giving the matter any thought.
"That's over with, long time ago," Santana said when asked if he thought he might have been pitching for the Red Sox this year. "This is where I am right now and I'm very happy to be here. I was doing my job. I wasn't thinking of anything else. I'm a Met."
Lester, one of the players the Sox offered for Santana, said, "It's over with, it's done with, it's nothing to even think about anymore. It was just fun to go up against a pitcher like that."
Ellsbury, a Boston fan favorite (Sox Nation might have stormed Fenway if Theo Epstein traded him), said, "In spring training, you want to face some good arms and he's one of them, but I didn't think of it like that [trade]. No one said anything about it."
That's the way it is with a lot of fan/media topics. We get wound up in irony, coincidence, and ancillary issues while the people doing the job on the field rarely give it any thought. It's like when we saw Manny Ramírez hugging Enrique Wilson behind the batting cage after Manny had been ripped for going out with Wilson when Manny was supposed to be sick in bed.
So there was no issue for Messrs. Santana, Lester, or Ellsbury. No angst. No agonizing reappraisal. But it sure was fun watching them play.
Epstein, who made the trip across the state to witness the 1-1, 10-inning tie, said, "I guess only the Twins know how close we came on that deal. We left them with a couple of strong offers and in the end they decided the Mets' offer was better so I can't tell you how close. Certainly there were times when we thought it was real close.
"The way it's been accepted now is that we were just driving up the price on the Yankees and once it was clear we wouldn't get him we backed out. That really wasn't the case.
"We place value on having a good farm system and having young players that can come up through the system, but we'd be crazy if we had a blanket rule that we never trade good prospects for established talent. There are certain players that are so impactful, and so talented and young and healthy that they justify significant cost in a trade, and Santana is certainly one of those players who can impact a franchise in a significant way for a long time, so we were legitimately interested in acquiring him.
"We were willing to pay a significant price and we got close at a couple of points. We thought our offer was strong and fair, but it wasn't enough, so we move on.
"There was an offer that the Twins made, a request of us, and we could have made the deal if we gave up a certain four-player package, and in my mind it was too much. It was not just one or two really good young players. It was a whole generation of young players that I think will make a significant impact for us over the long haul."
It doesn't matter now. The Mets are happy with Santana and the Sox are happy with Lester and Ellsbury.
Lester was strong in his third spring start, and he's emerged as a candidate to replace Josh Beckett (back spasms) as the Opening Day starter in Japan. The young lefty struck out five in four shutout innings and walked only one while allowing two hits.
"That's two outings in a row when he's thrown his fastball to both sides of the plate," said pitching coach John Farrell.
Santana wasn't bad, either. He struck out four and allowed only two hits in four innings.
Talking about Santana, Pedro Martínez sounded like Paul Pierce talking about Kevin Garnett.
"He's great, a horse," said Pedro. "A hard-working guy. I knew him from before, but watching him here, how dedicated he is to his job, I'm like watching me from 5-7 years ago. That's how I used to be."
Nobody on the scene yesterday expressed any regrets that the deal wasn't made.
"We really like our young players," said Sox manager Terry Francona.
And they will have them on Opening Day in Tokyo. There will be no Johan Santana, but look for Jacoby Ellsbury in center field and quite possibly Jon Lester on the mound.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. 