Not for Sale

(Photo from Boston.com)

Why are we even talking about this? Why are we even entertaining the notion? Just when I thought the re-signing of Mike Lowell meant that I could take a deep breath and relax this offseason, this kind of stuff gets thrown out there. Johan Santana is a good pitcher and all but...but...JACOBY! We can't give up Jacoby! Is this one of those things where Theo listens to what the other team wants - in this case it's apparently every farm-hand under the age of 30 plus Kevin Youkilis's former goatee - thinks about it for a second and then walks away laughing? Right? RIGHT? Tell me that's what's going on here. Because I can't deal with the notion that Theo might actually be considering trading away the Future of the Franchise for Johan Santana.

Okay, look, I know that around these parts we tend to romanticize our homegrown players and put them up on pedestals that often, they don't entirely deserve. But as I've said before, I finally feel excited about the future of this team in the sense that there are so many good, young guys that we made ourselves out of gumption and sawdust and good scouting and drafting. And they're ours. That, and I was proud of the fact that we were refusing to mortgage the future for the present. I'd like to continue to not do that.

The way I see it, if the season started tomorrow, we'd have pretty much exactly the same team as we had a month ago when we, you know, WON THE WORLD SERIES. There is no more "up" from there. There is no farther to go. You can't win the World Series more. Margin of victory doesn't matter. You win it and...you win it. End of story.

That said, if the Yankees want to trade away Philip Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Joba Chamberlain (but remain committed to re-signing Luis Vizcaino), well, hell, they should go for it. I won't stand in their way. People are already getting bent out of shape with how this Johan Santana bidding war is coming down to a Sox/Yankees battle again and to that I have two things to say. 1) Duh. Second verse, same as the first, and 2) I'm over it. I'm so over the constant sniping and out-bidding and one-upmanship that goes on between these two clubs. I've written about it before. By and large I was really proud of the way the organization handled the whole A-Rod thing in that, on the whole, they refused to get involved. I don't think doing the same thing here would be such a bad idea.

Because let's say the Yankees over-trade for Santana and we have to face him. So what? That, to me, is not the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario would be trading away Ellsbury, Lester and maybe Buchholz for a couple good years of Santana. Look, he's a great pitcher, I'm not denying that. But it's entirely possible and actually quite probable that Lester and/or Buchholz have it in them to be great pitchers too. And Ellsbury is made of magic and puppy dogs and sunshine. You can't trade away sunshine. You'll never find a uniform to fit. Not to mention what playing on concrete every day would do to his poor legs.

What I'd like to see happen is for Theo to say, "You can't have Ellsbury. Here's what we're offering. Take it or leave it." And if the Twins leave it? So be it. We'll still have our centerfielder and perhaps the Yankees will be up an ace. It wouldn't be the first time the Yankees have ended up with something the Red Sox coveted. But recent track records will indicate that that's not always a bad thing. Or does no one else remember Theo's hotel room-destroying temper tantrum when the Yankees signed Jose Contreras and prompted Larry Lucchino to release the now infamous "Evil Empire" quote?

Point being, if the Yankees get Santana, we'll deal.

I'm just saying, I think it'll be a lot easier to deal if we have our speedy centerfielder out there, shagging flies.

Can someone get on a "Keep Jacoby" petition?