Santana and Bedard: Worth the Farm

It’s baseball’s big question; do you trade away the keys to your minor league system for the quick fix player? In some cases, no way (i.e. Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano), but when the deal is there for you team to go from good to great, you must get it done.

This winter has been swarmed with talks of the Minnesota Twins moving Johan Santana and the Baltimore Orioles moving Erik Bedard. Also, let’s not forget that the Oakland Athletics very quickly moved Dan Haren. Pitching wins, and those three you could argue were three of the best five AL pitchers last season.

Now the question that always comes into play when acquiring a big time pitcher is how long can he last? Or how many years can we really put into one guy? The two largest free agent contracts given to pitchers in this millennium (Mike Hampton’s 8-year/$121 million deal and Barry Zito’s 7-year/$126 million deal) have not looked so pretty. Hampton’s turned into the biggest waste of money since Ryan Leaf signed an NFL contract. And while the jury is still out on Zito, he has done nothing but decline in the last few years.

Now the Mets took the risk of giving away the prospects to get Santana, and are all set to take the risk of a long term agreement to a pitcher. Johan Santana is the ultimate exception. The best pitcher in baseball deserves to be treated like the best. Much like I had no problem with giving Mike Piazza what was then the biggest contract in baseball (7 years/$91 million… the game has come a long way), I have no problem giving Santana the biggest amount of pitcher’s money in baseball.

Moving onto Erik Bedard, which Joe touched up upon two nights ago. Not to play devil’s advocate against the sucker for young talent that Joe is, I feel the Seattle Mariners need to deal their youth to land Bedard. It will ultimately help restore the team back to full credibility and provide a team with plenty of talent a serious shot at the postseason.

The Mariners toyed with the AL Wild Card for a little last season, but their pitching had glaring holes. Felix Hernandez is good, but he’s young. From there it’s no one special, just some guys who will give you a solid six inning each time out. An addition of Bedard heavily bolsters the staff, as it would slide Hernandez down to the No. 2 slot and takes a load of pressure of him. Now Miguel Batista, Jarrod Washburn and Horacio Ramirez would be able to round out the 3, 4 and 5 spots… a respectable 3, 4 and 5 that is.

The Mariners would also be wise to bringing in Bedard the same offseason the best pitcher of the AL West in 2007 left the division (Haren). While it would all be on paper, the Mariners would have to be a solid pick to compete with the Angles who always just seem to be a team that’s there.

And even outside of the AL West this deal helps the Mariners. Look around the American League. You’ve got Sabathia and Carmona in Cleveland, Beckett and Schilling in Boston, Verlander, Willis and Co. in Detroit, and now you could have Berdard and Hernandez in Seattle. That definitely gives the Mariners are better shot at holding ground than it would with Hernandez and Batista at the top.

It’s a sensible move and worth the youth. Adam Jones could flop like anyone from the endless list for five-tool prospects have. To be successful, you’ve got to take some chances. Take a plunge in the deep-end, and it’s hard to argue taking that plunge with Erik Bedard.

But then again, Erik Bedard's fate is controlled by Peter Angelos, the biggest jackass in baseball. So this Bedard saga may be far from over. Hang tight, folks.