Johan Santana: ‘As long as my arm’s still attached, I’m gonna give it a chance’
DUNEDIN, Fla. – Johan Santana is a four-time All-Star, he has two Cy Young awards, he’s pitched in the postseason four times, and has already made more than $150 million in his career. He doesn’t need to prove anything else in his career, but there he was on Saturday making his first appearance at Toronto Blue Jays spring training after signing a minor-league deal.
At 35, Santana simply wants another chance to take the mound and help a team win.
“I feel pretty excited to have an opportunity to get back into baseball,” Santana said. “As long as my arm’s still attached, I’m gonna give it a chance. I love what I do, and if I’m able to do it that’ll be great but if it doesn’t happen then at least I tried my best to come back.”
Santana will go down as one of the best pitchers of his era. He won the Cy Young award in 2004 and 2006 as a member of the Minnesota Twins. For three consecutive seasons (2004-2006) he led the league in strikeouts, FIP, WHIP, hits per nine innings, and won 55 games. In 2008 he was traded to the New York Mets and signed a six-year $137.5 million contract. Not long after injuries slowed him down. In 2009 he missed the last month of the season with an elbow injury, in 2010 he missed the last 24 games with a pectoral injury. Then in 2011 shoulder surgery forced him to miss all 162 games. He returned in 2012, threw a no-hitter in June, but only made 21 starts. He hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since. It’s not hard to see why Santana would like to go out on his own terms.
“I feel like I still can do this, I just don’t know at what level. Mentally I feel strong and that’s all I need. Physically you make adjustments as you go and then you get the right people to work with and put it all together.”
He is an interesting, low-risk addition by the Blue Jays who have obvious holes to fill with their pitching staff. There are some internal candidates for the fifth spot in rotation, such as Aaron Sanchez, Daniel Norris, and Marco Estrada, but as general manager Alex Anthopoulos pointed out you can never have too much depth.
“He’s on a minor-league deal so there’s no risk for us,” Anthopoulos said. “We saw him during the winter and he looked good. We’re going bring him in, he’ll go at his own pace and we’ll see what he has.
“We’re always going to look to add depth no matter what. It’s not an indictment on anyone who’s here, you’re looking to add guys all the time… We know we’re going to need more than five starters throughout the year.”
Santana would earn a $2.5 million base salary if he makes the team, and his deal is otherwise incentive laden. CBS’s Jon Heyman reported he could make as much as $6.5 million with the bonuses.
In his new, otherwise empty, locker in the Blue Jays clubhouse was a picture of Santana celebrating his no-hitter. The catcher who had run out to celebrate with him is a teammate once again – Josh Thole.
“It’s always good to have great memories,” Santana said. “Thole’s been a great friend of mine. It would be great to come back and have those kind of days again. It was something very special. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back and wear this uniform on a major-league mound and get that feeling again.
It seems if it wasn’t for bad luck recently, Santana would have no luck at all. At this time last year he signed a similar minor-league deal with the Baltimore Orioles. During an extended spring training start in June he tore his Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the year. It hasn’t dampened his spirits or his will to keep trying to come back.
“I’m always positive and I never give up,” Santana said. “I’ve got a great surgeon. As long as he can put me back together I’ll go back out there. As long as I’ll be able to play catch with my son later, that’s all I need.”
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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at denomme@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter.
