NEW YORK — Johan Santana was right there in the room as his agent and the New York Mets haggled over a colossal contract.
After three straight days of negotiating, the sides were $5 million apart — and time had run out.
Maybe this blockbuster trade between the Mets and Minnesota Twins was going to crumble, just as New York did during the pennant race last September.
“We talked about a worst-case scenario,” Mets general manager Omar Minaya recalled, thinking of the team’s eager fan base “What are we going to say?”
So agent Peter Greenberg and the Mets asked Minnesota for an extension, a request that was granted by the Twins and approved by the commissioner’s office. The deadline for talks was pushed back two hours to 7 p.m. EST Friday, and that was enough time to reach a deal.
“Without that, we wouldn’t have gotten it done,” Greenberg said.
Santana passed his physical Saturday, finalizing the ballyhooed swap that sent him to New York for four prospects: outfielder Carlos Gomez and right-handers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra.
“We’ve been lacking what we consider a true No. 1 starter,” Minaya said on a conference call. “It doesn’t get much better than Johan Santana.”
After an offseason of shopping the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner, Minnesota considered hanging onto him. Without a new deal, Santana, who will turn 29 next month, could have become a free agent following this year’s World Series. The Twins offered him an $80 million, four-year extension, but he turned it down.
“If we had not gotten an offer that we felt was acceptable, we would’ve kept Johan for the 2008 season,” new Twins general manager Bill Smith said on a separate conference call. “I think it dragged on long enough. You want to get to a point where you can go into spring training knowing what you have. I think everybody just reached a point where we felt this was the best we were going to get.”
The Mets and Twins announced the trade one day after Santana agreed to a $137.5 million, six-year contract with New York — record riches for a pitcher. With an option for a seventh season, the deal could be worth $157 million.
The left-hander gets $19 million this year, $20 million in 2009, $21 million in 2010, $22.5 million in 2011, $24 million in 2012 and $25.5 million in 2013, according to terms obtained by The Associated Press.
The Mets have a $25 million option for 2014 with a $5.5 million buyout, and the option could become guaranteed based on Santana’s innings and finish in postseason award voting. Of each year’s salary, including the option season, $5 million will be deferred.
As negotiations dragged on, the Mets thought it might help for Santana to meet owner Fred Wilpon and his son, Jeff, the club’s chief operating officer. At first, the pitcher didn’t want to travel to New York without an agreement in place, Greenberg said. But the Mets arranged a private plane for him, and Santana arrived at the SportsNet New York offices in Rockefeller Center, where talks took place.
“It took 74 hours of hard work, pretty much 24-7,” Greenberg said. “We got creative. We tried to work together to make this happen. This was something that both sides wanted.”
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