Johan Santana is finally and officially a Met (almost)

After months of speculation, the Twins have agreed to trade Johan Santana to the Mets for a package of young players—if, and only if, the Mets can sign Santana to a long-term deal in the next 72 hours. Since Santana has already rejected a 4 year, $80 million extension offered by Minnesota, he’s rumored to be looking for a six- or seven-year deal from New York, in the range of $20 million per.

If the Mets can make this happen, they will give up outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The Mets managed to hang on to their most prized prospect, outfielder Fernando Martinez. Bob Nightengale at USA Today, who first broke the story, calls Gomez a five-tool player, notes that he’s worked hard to cut down on his strikeouts, and sees him taking over in centerfield for the Twins. However, Rotoworld has a different take:

Gomez and Guerra are big-time talents, but Gomez lacks plate discipline and might not fit in the top half of the lineup and an awful lot could go wrong before Guerra even sniffs the majors. Mulvey and Humber are third starters at best and probably more like fourths. It’s a whole lot better than losing Santana for draft picks next winter, but we’d have taken a Phil Hughes or Jacoby Ellsbury package over this.

And as SI’s John Heyman notes, the current deal is the same offer the Mets made weeks ago.

For a hotly anticipated trade, this is deal is about as surprising as your average romantic comedy. The Yankees had already publicly announced their withdrawal from the auction, and the only other team rumored to be in the bidding was the Red Sox—who seemed involved only to keep the Yankees at bay. Could there be any doubting the ultimate betrothal of Johan Santana and the New York Mets?

Appropriate reactions now that this inevitable-for-weeks deal has finally gone down:

Mets fans: YEHAW!

Rest of NL East: *shudder.*

Yankee fans: Poop.

Red Sox fans: Phew.

Twins fans: Motherf***er.