The Minnesota Twins are going to trade their Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Johan Santana, and the New York Yankees want to be the team that gets him. For the Yankees to do so they will have to part with a package of young players, most likely including Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes, but probably not rotund, head-hunting stud Joba Chamberlain.

The Twins have no choice but to trade Santana, since he'll be a free agent after next season and will doubtless command an even bigger contract than the idiotic $126 million deal the Giants gave Barry Zito last year. The Twins just don't play in that league financially, even though Carl Pohlad is a rich old white man, and the team will see a bump in revenue in a few years when their new ballpark opens. They've already traded away centerfielder and team leader Torii Hunter.

The Yankees are not the only team rumored to be in on Santana. The Red Sox, of course, are also interested, and may be willing to give Minnesota Clay Buchholz or Jon Lester as part of a package. On the face of it, I would think either Lester or Buchholz would be more attractive than anything the Yanks have to offer pitching-wise, but the snag might be that the Twins want a centerfielder to replace Hunter, and the Red Sox have no interest in giving up Jacoby Ellsbury, the guy the Twins are reportedly after.

It's obvious why a guy like Santana would be so attractive to the Yanks. He's a threat to win 20 every year, plus he's a monster the second half of the season. The sticky point for the Yanks is that Johan has spent his entire career with a low-profile franchise in a relatively small media market, and has never been subjected to the kind of daily scrutiny he'd receive in the Big Apple. You just never know how a guy will respond to being dropped in that pressure cooker. Some guys, like mild-mannered Mike Mussina, bear up well, while others, like Randy Johnson, are far too prickly and soon find themselves regretting ever joining the team in the first place. Such concerns may seem minor to the Yanks, however, when considering the talent Santana brings. He could be yet another dominant Yankee lefty in the grand tradition of Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry and Andy Pettitte at his peak.