Santana Sweeps: Thursday

There's not been much happening the past 2 days on the Johan Santana talks after a mad start to the week. Theo Epstein left without any end in sight, although they still seem to be ahead of the pack, but just slightly.

Now, the rest of the pack includes the Yankees, Mets, Mariners and perhaps Angels. Newsday says Mets won't have a chance unless they include Jose Reyes in the package, which won't happen.

La Velle E. Neal III shares his thoughts on the whole affair. He believes the Red Sox are serious about Santana after speaking to some officials last night, but does not believe the Twins will budge easily without both Lester and Ellsbury in the deal. His sleeper pick is the Angels although they have not spoken to the Twins as yet, apparently.

According to Jon Heyman, the Met are offering Carlos Gomez, Mike Pelfrey, Aaron Heilman, including others for Santana. Here's how the other teams shape up with their packages:

Boston - Jon Lester, Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie, Justin Masterson
Yankees - Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez
Mariners - Adam Jones, Brandon Morrow (what's this? A joke?)

Boston Herald's Rob Bradford had a talk with Josh Beckett and the Boston ace said he was earning enough money as it is and was more concerned about winning than any contract re-work if Santana joins the team. He did state that he would be upset with good friend Jon Lester being traded but understands that baseball is a business and that Boston would do whatever it takes to ensure that. And he would be fine with that.

Update: Joel Sherman reported that the Twins and Yankees had a brief discussion on including Joe Nathan in the deal. If this were to be realised, would the Red Sox change their stance on Ellsbury?