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What a day for the N.Y. Mets, as they finally reached an agreement with the Twinkees to acquire southpaw Johan Santana. I thought I would do a “best of” from the blogosphere about the deal. One thought, before I go around the web. Let’s say the Mets still had lefty Scott Kazmir, they probably are not making this trade. If,If,If. Lets just say this trade leaves the Mets front office off the hook.

Just to recap the “Free” Johan Santana time line. This is a rags to riches story. First as the Twins Rule V draftee, to the live arm out of the Twins bullpen, to making his way into the Twins pitching rotation, to eventually claiming the top spot in the rotation, to a two time Cy Young winner. As Gleeman writes today:

The early days of this blog were filled with a “Free Johan Santana!” campaign that urged the Twins to move their young left-handed phenom into the starting rotation. After Santana spent the majority of four years in the bullpen and another half-season at Triple-A, the Twins finally gave him a permanent spot in the rotation to begin the 2004 season. He immediately became the best pitcher in baseball, winning the AL Cy Young by going 20-6 while leading the league with a 2.61 ERA and 265 strikeouts.

The Santanamania sweepstakes are over!

Yankees winners of Santana deal because Sox did not get him

Neyer sees a better Santana (if thats possible)

Mets and Twins: Who Fleeced Who

The players involved timeline

Reactions from opposing Players , Mets Players

New Top 10 Mets Prospects

Santana Forced Deal ?

Mets Blog said it December 8th:

having talked with a variety of people over the last few days, ranging from those who are connected to the team to people connected to player reps to those who work in media and for teams who are following the negotiations, from what i can gather, Johan Santana prefers to be on the Mets, where he can a) be in New York City, and b) get out of the hitter-dominant American League…