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That's my prediction anyway.

Johan Santana might be available later this off-season should the Twin fail to sign him to a long term deal. The Twins are opening a new park in 2009, so they probably want a marque pitcher to go along with their marque catcher in Joe Mauer.

That being said, should he become available, the Red Sox are likely to make a pitch. The pros: Santana is the best lefty in baseball if not the best pitcher in baseball. He is only 28 and in his prime. A lefty in Yankees Stadium is always a good thing. The cons: He will cost a ton to acquire. Even if he is acquired, it will take a ton of cash to sign him ($20mm a year for 6 years).

The larger question for the Red Sox is that in order to get him, we as fans are going to have to say goodbye to 2 or 3 top prospects. Not the Michael Bowden's or Aaron Bates', but the Jacoby Ellsbury's and/or Clay Buccholz's.

The Red Sox have worked hard to build up a farm system. Winning the 2007 World Series proved that not only have they worked hard at it, they've also succeeded with Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Manny Delcarmen contributing (Youkilis I believe was a draft choice of the Dan Duquette regime). With that in mind, they can choose to use the talent or trade the talent (or a little of both). Using the talent means costs are contained given the current salary structure for young players. But talent doesn't always translate into quality MLB performance, so trading unproven talent for proven talent generally yields better returns. Of course that isn't always true, but with a skilled front office, you'd hope that trading for a Johan Santana would help your squad, right?

If I'm the Red Sox front office, I make a pitch.. You have to. Coco Crisp is in no matter what as the Twins need a CF should they lose Torii Hunter. Then I offer either Jonathan Lester OR Clay Buccholz, but not both. Lastly, I top off the offer with prospect that is further away like a Justin Masterson or Nick Hagadone. If that isn't enough to get the job done, then see you later. That would mean a team like the Yankees would have to beat the Red Sox offer and it means they are giving up a Cano or Cabrera, Hughes OR Chamberlain and a Kennedy. Remember, they'd have to beat that offer, one would hope. I think Cano is a better talent than Crisp, so they have the edge there, but he doesn't play CF, not yet anyway.

I do not like the idea of having to face Johan 3-4 times each season should the Yankees land him. I believe at the end of the day he winds up a Yankees. Why? They are far less inclined to rebuild (see the $400mm they've committed this off-season so far) and probably have more pitching talent to trade than do the Red Sox. Plus, the Yankees starting pitching wasn't good last year and being able to plug in Santana for 225 IP would be a huge boost.

So there you have it and I'm not apologizing for the teaser title.