FanPost

Here's What the Mets, and the entire MLB, may have been like today if Johan Santana wasn't ever a Met...

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Some big-time players wearing some different hats...

I remember it like it was yesterday… It was the 2007-08 offseason, and Johan Santana, the best pitcher in the MLB, was on the trade block. The Twins were set on trading Santana, who had won the Cy Young Award just a season before. The Mets, Red Sox, and Yankees were the three leading contenders to trade for Santana. Ultimately, with a package of Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, Deolis Guerra, and Philip Humber, the Mets successfully landed Santana.

But we can wonder… What if the Mets HADN’T traded for Johan Santana?

  • The Boston Red Sox would’ve traded for Santana’s services, giving up Jon Lester, Jed Lowrie, Coco Crisp, and Justin Masterson.
  • Because the Mets failed to trade for Johan Santana, they’d go out and do the next best thing- sign C.C. Sabathia to a record setting deal
  • Now that the Yankees don’t have C.C. Sabathia, they don’t have the pieces to win the 2009 World Series. Instead, the Johan Santana-led Red Sox win the World Series, defeating the Phillies in 5 games.
  • Without Johan Santana, the Mets still don’t have a no-hitter.
  • Johan Santana’s no-hitter with the Mets was highly disputed, as there was an extremely questionable call that kept his no-hitter going. This was one of the main reasons for the installation of a Replay System, and now that this no-hitter was inexistent, a Replay System isn’t installed in the MLB until at least 2015.
  • Carlos Gomez is a Met, and they lock him up to an extension, so he blossoms here in New York. Thus, there is no hole in the outfield come the 2013 offseason, and the Mets don’t sign Curtis Granderson.
  • Instead, because of a lack of a real market, Curtis Granderson settles for less money to join his friend and former Yankees’ teammate, Robinson Cano, with the Seattle Mariners.
  • Granderson adds to an already stacked team that the Mariners built in just a few winter months, and this team is ready to compete. They ultimately perform well enough to earn a wild card spot. The Angels win the AL West, and the A’s and Mariners clinch Wild Card Spots, so this division basically monopolizes the playoffs. Because of this, the Kansas City Royals just barely miss the playoffs.
  • The Oakland A’s beat the Mariners in the Wild Card Game, as they’re simply more prepared and a better team. The A’s move on to face their division rival, the Angels, in 7 games, as the Angels banged-up pitching staff just can’t do the job. Finally, the A’s move to the ALCS to face off against the Baltimore Orioles, and the Orioles are no match for this dominant Oakland team.
  • Oakland moves on to the World Series to play the San Francisco Giants in a Bay Area Showdown. The A’s showed during the regular season that they were a far superior team to the Giants, and nothing really has changed. The Giants end up getting swept by the A’s in one of the least exciting World Series’s of recent memory.
  • All of these changes will change a bunch of other events throughout the league…

What do you think about this scenario? Should we have traded for Santana in retrospect? Would the league have been better if Santana ended up with the Red Sox, and not the Mets?

Please COMMENT your responses!!!

Also, check out my last article on Amazin Avenue about a potential Starlin Castro-to-the-Mets trade HERE: http://www.amazinavenue.com/2014/12/16/7406543/mets-should-trade-for-starlin-castro-if-available-proposal-here!!

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process.