Yanks, Red Sox play Santana poker

Friday, November 30, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Maybe the Red Sox really want Johan Santana. Maybe they are sitting in the back rooms at Fenway Park, counting out the cash and preparing to offer the best pitcher on the planet $25 million a year over six years. Maybe the Steinbrenners are ready to throw their boatloads of cash at the left-hander, knowing that Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina and others are coming off their payroll after next year.

Or maybe not. This situation is ripe for a bluff, because it has to come in two parts -- the negotiations over players, and then the contract negotiations with Santana.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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