The New York Mets FINALLY Finalize Deal On Johan Santana

The New York Mets have reached agreement on a contract extension with Johan Santana completing the trade for the pitcher with the Minnesota Twins from earlier in the week. Terms of the deal have not been announced.

The two sides were given a 5 p.m. Eastern deadline to complete a deal after the Mets engineered the trade that involved sending four prospects to the Twins. But more time was needed to to work out the details and baseball officials granted an extension.

Said the Mets in a statement Friday evening: "Negotiations have been completed and the player will take a physical."

After all this clawing and scratching to get Johan Santana he better pass his physical.

Signing Johan Santana Is Proving More Difficult Than The New York Mets Thought

With millions of baseball fans on their seats awaiting to hear the biggest trade in the offseason, Johan Santana and the New York Mets are having a difficult time delivering the good news.

Major League Baseball has granted Johan Santana and the New York Mets an extra two hours to work on a contract extension Friday, pushing the deadline to 7 p.m. EST. The Mets and Santana's agents continued to negotiate furiously Friday, as the original 5 p.m. ET deadline to complete terms of a long-term contract came and went with no immediate resolution.

And as that 5 p.m. deadline passed, indications were that the key sticking point continued to be Santana's attempts to get the Mets to guarantee all six years of his contract extension, on top of the final year of his current contract. According to baseball sources who have been monitoring the negotiations, the Mets' best hope to resolve that disagreement would be to offer to guarantee the sixth season if Santana's side would agree to accept fewer dollars per year.

The Mets and the Minnesota Twins agreed to a tentative deal Tuesday pending the completion of an extension for Santana, a two-time Cy Young winner. In return, the Twins would receive center fielder Carlos Gomez and pitching prospects Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The buzz in the industry Friday was that Santana's agents, Peter and Ed Greenberg, initially asked for the $28 million per year listed in Roger Clemens' prorated contract with the Yankees last season -- which would have amounted to a six-year, $168 million extension. That amount would not have included either a signing bonus or the $13.25 million Santana is scheduled to earn this season. So his total package would have topped $190 million.

There were indications that the Greenbergs later lowered that request to $25 million a year -- which would have resulted in a six-year, $150 million extension and a total package (including this season) of more than $170 million. The Mets' initial offers, however, were all believed to be just five-year guarantees, plus a vesting option for 2014, in the range of $21 million a year. But there was rampant speculation in the industry Friday afternoon that the two sides were headed toward a compromise in which the Mets would guarantee the sixth season if Santana lowered his salary request to $22 million a year.

With a hefty signing bonus added to this year's salary, that figure would bring Santana's total package to about $152 million over seven years -- the largest contract ever awarded to any pitcher. The $22 million per year also would be a record for a pitcher on a multi-year contract -- and, in fact, would be the third-highest average annual salary in baseball history, behind only Alex Rodriguez's last two contracts ($27.5 million in the deal signed this winter, $25.2 million in the contract he signed with Texas in December 2000). But as of mid-afternoon Friday, the two sides hadn't agreed to those figures -- or any other figures.

Major Transactions Happening In The MLB

In the middle of the football playoffs, people such as myself tend to forget that other sports exist. Still, major trades and acquisitions have been occurring in recent weeks in the MLB:

The St. Louis Cardinals have reached agreement on a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays that will send third baseman Scott Rolen to the Blue Jays for third baseman Troy Glaus, several major league sources said.

The deal is contingent upon the two players passing physical exams Monday, sources said.

According to a source with knowledge of the trade, the Cardinals only signed off on the deal after Glaus agreed to exercise his $11.25 million option for 2009. St. Louis management didn't want to give up three years of Rolen for only one year of Glaus, so Glaus had to commit to the option year as part of the deal.

Both players were also required to waive no-trade clauses.

A source told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that Toronto will be responsible for the three years and $33 million left on Rolen's contract, while St. Louis will assume the $24.5 million owed Glaus through 2009. Since no cash is involved in the trade, it appears that no approval from commissioner Bud Selig's office is required.

Rolen, 32, is a career .283 hitter and seven-time Gold Glove winner with Philadelphia and St. Louis. Only Brooks Robinson, with 16 Gold Gloves, and Mike Schmidt, with 10, have won the award more often at third base.

Rolen has struggled with shoulder problems the last two seasons, and had a well-publicized falling out with manager Tony La Russa that set trade talks in motion.

Glaus, 31, has 277 career homers in 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks and Blue Jays. He hit 20 homers and drove in 62 runs in 115 games with Toronto last season before undergoing surgery in September to repair a nerve problem in his left foot.

I love this trade because I'm a big Troy Glaus fan even though he has been slacking in the numbers lately. Here's some simple math: Albert Pujols + Troy Glaus = Major Power.

Also in the MLB (and this saddens me as an Atlanta Braves Fan), the Atlanta Braves have reached a preliminary agreement to acquire center fielder Mark Kotsay from the Oakland Athletics, filling the hole created by the departure of Andruw Jones. The deal will be finalized once Kotsay passes a physical for Atlanta, where he is expected to fly to on Sunday, and assuming the commissioner's office approves the cash negotiated to be exchanged in the deal, sources say.

In return for Kotsay, the Braves are trading pitcher Joey Devine, and Oakland will assume $5.325 million of the $7.325 million owed to the center fielder for this year.

Kotsay, 32, played in 56 games in 2007 after having back surgery, hitting .214 with 15 extra-bases hits in 206 at-bats. In 2005, before Kotsay began having serious back trouble, he batted .280, with 51 extra-base hits and a .325 on-base percentage.

He has rated highly as a center fielder, and the Braves are trying to find a temporary center fielder for at least the start of the 2008 season, or until they deem top-prospect Jordan Schaefer ready to take over the position permanently. Even still, c'mon, Mark Kotsay? Is that the best the Braves can do to replace the almighty powerful Andruw Jones? Now you know this team is trying to rebuild.