NEW YORK (AP) – Now that Johan Santana is penciled in atop the Mets’ rotation, some folks sound ready to hand New York the National League pennant.
Not so fast.
Don’t forget, the Mets didn’t even make the playoffs last year. And they’re not the only team to add an ace.
The NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Dan Haren from Oakland, giving them a nasty 1-2 punch of right-handers in their prime. Haren and Brandon Webb, the 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner, should win enough games all by themselves to at least make the young Diamondbacks contenders again.
Just imagine if 44-year-old Randy Johnson and his creaky back are healthy, too.
There’s Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux in San Diego, plus All-Star closer Trevor Hoffman. Philadelphia boasts blossoming lefty Cole Hamels, and the Chicago Cubs have two bulldogs in Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly.
winners: John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton – if he can finally stay off the disabled list.
And we haven’t even mentioned the Colorado Rockies yet.
Oh, by the way, they surged all the way to the World Series last season behind 17-game winner Jeff Francis and several electric young arms that only figure to get better.
The Mets will formally introduce Santana at a Shea Stadium news conference Wednesday, but even with him they don’t have a monopoly on pitching in the National League.
Far from it.
What he does, though, is single-handedly boost their rotation from iffy to solid. And he’ll take pressure off a bullpen that faltered badly down the stretch last season as New York squandered a big lead in the NL East.
“We look good,” Mets second baseman Luis Castillo said Tuesday. “This year we know have a good team and we need to win.”
Castillo, who played with Santana in Minnesota from 2006-07, was acquired by the Mets just before the trade deadline last July. The speedy switch-hitter re-signed with New York in November and said his troublesome right knee feels much better following clean-up surgery this offseason.
That should help a Mets lineup that also features All-Stars Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran, plus veteran sluggers Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou.
New York got a defensive upgrade at catcher when it obtained Brian Schneider in a trade with the Washington Nationals. The same deal also brought right fielder Ryan Church, but it remains to be seen if he can hit left-handers well enough to hold that job down himself.
The free-spending Mets got the legitimate ace they sorely needed when they acquired Santana from the Twins for four prospects and signed him to a $137.5 million, six-year contract – record riches for a pitcher.
On paper, the Mets look as good as any team in the NL.
But they’re not in a league by themselves.
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