Despite news to the contrary for the past month, many fans, and even writers have speculated that the Red Sox are only involved in Santana talks to drive up the price for the Yankees. Why would the Red Sox be involved to drive up the price for the team least involved in Santana talks? Peter Abraham reiterated today, that "there are no indications that the Yankees will suddenly get back into the mix for Johan Santana."
You have to be careful with news like this, as teams routinely provide misinformation to the media. But to anyone who still thinks the Yankees are heavily involved in Santana talks, I challenge you to provide one piece of evidence that the Yankees have been involved since the Winter Meetings. In the words of a Yankees team source, "we pulled out in Nashville, and we haven't put an offer back on the table." The New York Post, as well as several other sources, have confirmed that the two teams "have not seriously discussed players with the Twins" since the winter meetings."
The package which the Yankees offered the Twins is widely believed to involve Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Marquez. But the New York Daily News reported back in early December, that the Yankees took that deal off the table. These seems to confirm other reports that the Yankees haven't had a deal on the table since the Winter Meetings.
So why exactly would the Red Sox be driving up the price? In reality, the Red Sox have been the team most involved in Santana talks. And without competition, there's a good chance that the Red Sox current package of Jon Lester, Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie and Justin Masterson is the best offer available to the Twins. The Red Sox would be crazy not to take that deal, even if they were involved just to drive up Santana's price.
