On Santana rumors: He’s got a year left on his deal at $13.5. The Twins will likely entertain offers for him because they may be shy about putting up big bucks to resign him. They shouldn’t be, but they figure to get some solid, multiple, cheap, young pieces in return.

Why the Red Sox SHOULD kick the tires on a deal: He’s only 28 years old. He’s a lefty. You can never have too much pitching. He’s not “going to be” anything. He is right now. And what he is, is one of the top one, two, or three pitchers in baseball. ... He’s better than Pedro when Pedro came to Boston ... Similar deal to the Beckett deal with Florida, only Santana’s better and might cost more. How’d that work out for us? ...

Why they should do so carefully: He’s thrown a lot of innings, but isn’t a big guy. They need to be paranoid about this, given the price (see Martinez, Pedro). The price is going to be very high, in terms of both future salary for him AND players to the Twins. There will be heavy competition, so the price could go sky high in a hurry.