Blue
Jays, Orioles In
Play For
Ervin Santana
6:26pm:*Santana*continues to consider offers from the
Orioles and the
Jays, ESPN's*Enrique Rojas
tweets, **ting that two other clubs had expressed interest this after**on (Spanish link).
4:08pm:*FOX Sports' Jon Morosi
tweets that a source tells him that
Santana could wait "
days" before signing. 4:00 has come and gone, and there's ** news about his decision.
12:08pm:*Rojas writes (Spanish-language) that
Santana is deciding between the
Jays, who have offered $14MM, and the Orioles, who have offered $13MM plus incentives.
11:43am:*Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes
tweets that
Santana will sign with the Jays for $14MM by 4:00pm if he does **t receive a better offer by then.
11:40am:*The deal is **t yet done, but
Santana and the Jays are discussing one, the New York Post's Joel Sherman
tweets.
11:18am:*The
Blue Jays have agreed to terms with
Ervin Santana on a one-year, $14MM deal, Dionisio Soldevila of ESPN Deportes
tweets. Earlier in the day, Soldevila had
reported that
Santana would sign with an AL club for $14MM.
Santana has until recently been represented by Proformance, although there have been
recent reports about the possibility of
Santana ending his relationship with that agency.
Santana pitched 211 innings with the Royals in 2013, posting a 3.24 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9. After the season, he rejected a $14.1MM qualifying offer, hoping to strike it big on the free agent market. Obviously, that didn't happen, as the issue of draft pick forfeiture supressed the market for
Santana and several other players. The
Blue Jays have two first-round picks, at **. 9 and **. 11, and both are protected. So they'll have to give up the **. 50 overall pick for signing Santana.
Santana's one-year deal gives him the opportunity to hit the free agent market again next offseason, when he will turn 32. If he performs well, however, he may still have to deal with the qualifying offer issue.
Santana ranked sixth on
MLBTR's list of the top 2013-14 free agents.
Ubaldo Jimenez, who ranked 11th and also rejected a qualifying offer, received four years and $50MM from the Orioles, and
Santana reportedly sought a similar contract. ESPN's Buster Olney recently
tweeted that teams were concerned about the health of Santana's elbow.
Assuming
Santana remains healthy, however, $14MM plus the **. 50 overall draft pick seems like a very reasonable price for the
Blue Jays to pay a young-ish, solidly-above-average starting pitcher who topped 200 innings last year.
Santana will provide a significant boost to a Jays rotation that was unsettled after
R.A. Dickey,
Brandon Morrow and
Mark Buehrle.*
