The New York Yankees have joined two of Johan Santana's former teams as well as five other baseball clubs that are reportedly interested in landing the veteran left-handed pitcher.
According to ESPN, the Yankees--along with Santana's former teams the New York Mets and Minnesota Twins--have interest in landing Santana, 34, in order to boost their rotation. The report indicates that the talks between Santana and all reported eight teams that are interested in him are in the preliminary stages.
Santana has had injury trouble in the past and didn't pitch in two of the last three seasons due to shoulder surgery, but he did pitch for part of 2012 until he injured his shoulder after delivering the first ever no-hitter in franchise history for the Mets on June 1.
ESPN reports that the Yankees, Mets and Twins are three of eight teams interested in Santana, with the other five clubs being the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The report indicates that the Yankees and a few of the teams listed as being interested in Santana could attempt to offer Santana an incentive-laden non-roster invitee contract. According to ESPN, Santana's agent Peter Greenberg said that Santana is interested in signing a contract now if a club separates itself from the pack of the other eight teams. The report indicates that if Santana doesn't sign a deal, he is set to showcase his pitching in January.
One wrench that may emerge in the Yankees plans to sign Santana is that he sports a trademark goatee and reportedly likes facial hair, so he may not be willing to follow the team's mandatory clean-shaven policy.
The Yankees would like to sign Santana and bring him into a rotation that includes CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova while Michael Pineda, David Phelps, Vidal Nuno and Adam Warren are set to battle it out for the fifth spot in the rotation.
The Yankees could also be interested in Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka if he ends up being posted, but there is no guarantee that he will be.
The Twins traded Santana to the Mets back in 2007, but before the deal was made the Yankees and Twins were involved in trade talks regarding Santana, but the Yankees were unwilling to part ways with pitcher Phil Hughes, who just signed a three-year $24 million contract with Minnesota this offseason.
Santana boasts a career 139-78 record with a 3.20 career ERA and 1,988 strikeouts. In 2012, Santana was 6-9 with a 4.85 ERA and 111 strikeouts for the Mets.
Santana is two-time Cy Young Award winner and a four-time All-Star.
Santana was almost traded to the Yankees in a deal that would have involved Hughes back in 2007, now it seems like he may be replacing Hughes on the 2014 roster if a deal is struck.
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