FanHouse PhilHumber

Upon reading the strip The Dugout: Might Happen After All, FanHouse reader Disco Dan Ford commented:
He's right. With the exception of Delmon Young showing up to whip a bat or Justin Morneau showing up to participate in an abstruse Watchmen parody, we haven't featured the Twins in the Dugout. So, now that the season is completely finished, here is a Dugout about the Twins! Hooray!

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- The Cavalry Arrives: The rosters expand from 25 to 40 today, allowing clubs that have fallen out of contention to give their younger players a taste of the majors and giving contenders the chance to add another bullpen arm or bench bat for the stretch run.

A few players to keep an eye on that could actually contribute to contenders down the stretch:

Doug Slaten, RP, Diamondbacks - Should give Arizona a much-needed left-handed bullpen arm for the final month.

James McDonald, SP, Dodgers - Could get a spot start or two.

Mat Gamel, 3B, Brewers - Shortstop Alcides Escobar has gotten a little more buzz, but Gamel could be in the platoon mix with Bill Hall and Russell Branyan plenty over the final month.

Jonathon Niese, SP, Mets - He's starting against Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Phil Humber, RP, Twins - One of the players acquired by Minnesota in the Johan Santana deal, Humber will start out in the bullpen, which hasn't been as strong as the Twins would like, but he could also make a spot start if needed.

John Jaso, C, Rays - Whither David Price? As Pat Lackey pointed out last week, he might not be as ready as most people think. Jaso has a gaudy .820 OPS at Triple-A Durham, and with Dioner Navarro nursing the bumps and bruises of a long season, he could spell the catcher effectively.

Looks like Carlos Gomez wasn't pulled from the Caribbean World Series for no reason. The Mets and Twins have agreed on a deal to send Johan Santana to Queens for four prospects, pending an agreement on a contract extension between the lefty and his new club. The package - Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey - doesn't include prized outfield prospect Fernando Martinez, long believed to be the sticking point in negotiations.

Take your hat off to Omar Minaya for getting this deal done without including Martinez. In a market that had the Twins demandin several top prospects from all suitors, Minaya's handiwork should be applauded. He dealt three pitchers who, while solid prospects, weren't going to help the Mets appreciably in 2008 or 2009 and turned them into the game's best pitcher. Throw in the helpful move from American to National League and the pitcher's paradise that is Shea Stadium and you've got a gem of a deal for the Amazins.

As for the Twins, it's a mixed blessing. They got a five-tool player in Gomez who will replace Torii Hunter in the lineup this summer. But GM Bill Smith didn't get Phil Hughes or any other stud, major league ready pitcher for the rotation. The three ex-Mets project as major leaguers, but none is quite there yet. Coupled with the trade of Matt Garza earlier this offseason and the rehabbing Francisco Liriano, the Twins are looking awfully thin on the mound in the near future.

Yesterday, the word out of New York was that the Yankees found the combination of prospects and hefty new contract too prohibitive a price to pay for Johan Santana. That offered the Mets a glimmer of hope at landing the prized pig of the Hot Stove, but only if they included 19-year old Fernando Martinez in a package with four other prospects.

The quintet - Martinez, outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Deolis Guerra, Kevin Mulvey and Phil Humber - is made up of five of the top seven prospects in the Mets system, according to Baseball America. When you add in a new contract in the neighborhood of $140 million for six years, the Mets would be placing the next half-decade of hopes on Santana's left shoulder. That's a tremendous amount of risk, even for a general manager as aggressive as Omar Minaya, and it's why the team is passing on such a proposal.

The risk of not making the deal is almost as large, however. The Mets are running the risk of letting the window opened by the Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran signings close without winning anything. Yes, they're set to contend again next year but without an ace pitcher, are they any better than we left them in September? Whatever Tom Glavine's foibles, he's left a hole in the rotation that they've only filled with uncertainty. Play for now or play for later, that's the question, and how the Mets proceed will provide the answer.

Having backed out of a deal with Yorvit Torrealba at the last minute, the Mets are still in the market for a catcher. Re-signing Paul Lo Duca is one option, but the Mets still think he's asking for too much money and too many years.

Unfortunately, there's really not many other options on the free agent market, which means if the Mets want anything better than a replacement-level player behind home plate, they'll need to hit the trade market. According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, the team has Baltimore's Ramon Hernandez and Texas' Gerald Laird in their sights, although a deal does not appear imminent:

At the moment, the Mets view the asking prices for Hernandez and Laird as too high. One official familiar with the Mets' thinking predicted that no moves will be made, for either a catcher or a starting pitcher, before the Dec. 3-6 winter meetings in Nashville.

What's wrong with simply using Ramon Castro as a starter? Nothing, if the team knew for sure that he'd stay healthy. But he's 31 years old and has appeared in at least 55 games in a season just once. Plus, as attractive as his bat may be, his work behind the plate is more than suspect. Davidoff also notes that the Mets are trying to improve their pitching, and are willing to dangle the likes of Aaron Heilman, Phil Humber, Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez, among others, to get a deal done.