Reaction Around the Nation

What people are saying about the Santana trade around the country:

-Aaron Gleeman, AaronGleeman.com: "Trading the best pitcher in baseball without getting the Mets' top prospect in return is disappointing...In poker terms, Smith slow-played a big hand and ended up dragging in less than the maximum pot."

-Jayson Stark, ESPN.com: "But what they did Tuesday was simple: They did what they had to do. If their option had been to take the Mets' offer or climb in a time zone and ride back to December, they'd have chosen that time machine."

-Jim Callis, Baseball America: "Santana is the best pitcher in the game. And Smith didn’t get enough for him."

-Dave Sheinen, Washington Post: "Twins General Manager Bill Smith is certain to be questioned about the quality of the package he got in return for Santana, who will turn 29 in March, and about whether he may have waited too long to make a deal."

-Bob Nightengale, USA Today: "The Mets, ridiculed in New York for inactivity since their season-ending collapse last season, won the biggest prize of the winter."

-Nate Silver, Baseball Prospectus: "And it’s hard to think of another permutation of team and player that does more to improve a team’s chances of reaching the playoffs. Considering that the Mets managed to achieve this without giving up a single top-tier prospect, this is a happy day for Mets fans."

-Nick Coleman, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Twins' best pitcher -- and one of the best in baseball -- was traded to the Mets for four stiffs no fifth-grader heard of before."

-Mike Vaccaro, New York Post: "Today you [Mets fans] are allowed to rejoice. You are allowed to pinch yourself. You are allowed to start dreaming summer dreams."

-Ronald Blum, Miami Herald: "What originally appeared to be a bidding war for Santana early in the offseason turned into something more akin to a negotiation of attrition in which first the Yankees and then the Red Sox appeared to lose interest and decide they'd rather hold onto their top prospects."

-Bob Cook, MSNBC: "Acquiring Santana for four players that may or may not make a major-league impact— for now, the young quartet is “may not” — is going to have a similar impact on the weak NL that the Boston Celtics acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen had in the weak NBA Eastern Conference."

-Greg Couch, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Mets traded a bunch of prospects to Minnesota for Santana... The thing is, this trade kills the Cubs. Kills them."