Should the Twins add another player to trade talks?

Hello again. Yesterday, La Velle E. Neal III said that a scout suggested that the Twins should add a prospect to the trade talks of Johan Santana with the Mets, to get them to add young prized outfielder Fernando Martinez.

My thinking is this. That's not a bad idea, however I don't see the Twins giving up a young player such as Kevin Slowey, Anthony Swarzak or even Glen Perkins. And I'd probably even go as far as saying that they probably wouldn't give up Jeff Manship or Tyler Robertson as well. That would leave many guys who project to be back-end starters such as Brian Duensing, Nick Blackburn, and Oswaldo Sosa just to name a few. I'm not even sure who the Mets would want in terms of a position prospect, so I won't even go there.

If the Mets wanted one of those prospects, heck even two, I'd probably oblige. However, if the Mets demand Blackburn in the deal, would it just be easier for the Twins to say "How about you (the Mets) just keep Phil Humber or Kevin Mulvey, and we'll make it a 4-for-1 deal, instead of 5-for-2?"

Humber still has potential to be a middle-of-the-rotation starter, however the feel of optimism is not strong. Mulvey also projects as a #3/4 starter, however if the Mets are that adimant on keeping some of their valuable prospects, one of these two wouldn't too bad to keep. The Twins should offer one of those guys (Sosa, Duensing, Blackburn, etc.), and see how the Mets react. I think that the Twins need to make sure that Fernando Martinez is in a deal. The Mets current 4-for-1 offer is not that strong, although it does possess a lot of potential. I'm not saying the Twins need to demand all 5 of the players, however I think that Martinez must be included.

It sounds like the Mets are having a hard time giving up all 3 of Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra and Martinez. I say, let them keep one of them (preferably Guerra) and let us take the other two as well as two more pitching prospects.

An offer of Martinez, Gomez, Humber & Mulvey is a fair deal, in my opinion. And another player that may interest the Twins could be Aaron Heilman who's been a solid starter-turned-reliever for the Mets. They also have Mike Pelfrey who has been solemnly talked about in these talks thus far, besides speculation amongst fans, he could be another player the Twins may be interested in.

The Mets rotation would look as follows: Santana, Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez, John Maine and Orlando Hernandez. Maine, Santana, and Perez would be locks for the following 5 years or so, where as Martinez probably has just 2-3 more years and Hernandez is probably gone after '08. The Mets would still have Pelfrey, Guerra, Rob Parnell, Jon Niese, and Brant Rustich.

That's not a bad future in terms of pitching, with a young pitching staff that they'd have, I think most teams would be able to live with the fact that they got to keep both Pelfrey & Guerra while acquiring a pitcher like Santana.