The word all over the place (including the comments) is that the Red Sox are prepared to offer Jon Lester, Coco Crisp, Justin Masterson, and Jed Lowrie to the Twins for Johan Santana. This is after the Yankees rejected a swap of Hughes, Melk, Horne, and Ajax. While I firmly believe that what the Twins asked of the Yanks is of greater value than they will reportedly receive from the Red Sox, I’ll try to avoid pitching a fit about it.

If the Sox want to do that, so be it. It makes a ton more sense for them. Lester is immediately replaced with Santana; Crisp wasn’t going to start anyway because of Ellsbury; Lowrie is blocked by Youkilis, Pedroia, and Julio Lugo’s contract; Masterson is something like Alan Horne, just not as far along in his development.

Meanwhile, the Yanks would have replaced Hughes with Santana, but then would have had to either lessen their outfield defense with the loss of Melky. True, Gardner could have slid into that spot eventually, but he’s unknown, too. Less known than Ellsbury in any event. Then you have Ajax, who just had a monster breakout year, and Horne, who could serve as an injury fill-in next year or as a bullpen cog. And, as I said, he’s further along than Masterson, and I’d venture to guess they have roughly the same chance of panning out.

And that’s not even mentioning the superiority of Ian Kennedy in this deal.

So while this isn’t tasking for Nick Johnson and Alfonso Soriano and then taking Casey Fossum and Brandon Lyon, the Sox are clearly getting the better deal here. Some of it is a lesser breed of players, and some of it is the necessity of those players to the Sox overall scheme.

Update: After exchanging emails with a friend, I think I’ve found a comparable package from the Yanks: Hughes, Melky, Horne, Alberto. Then you have Hughes greater than Lester, Melky greater than Crisp, Horne and Masterson on equal ground, and Lowrie greater than Alberto. I suppose at that point that it would be up to the Twins to decide which parts they value more. Just remember, though, Hughes’s minor league career is superior to even the biggest MLB stars.

By now, it’s clear that we’re not going to get a resolution to this whole Johan Santana business tonight. But allow me to leave you with two reports which bode well for our efforts but not for Johan Santana’s Bronx future.

In one corner, hailing from ESPN.com and the fine city of Philadelphia, is Jayson Stark with this report:

The Yankees’ “by Monday night” deadline came and went. And Johan Santana was still a Twin when Tuesday arrived at the winter meeting. But even though the Yankees and Twins were still talking about different combinations as the night grew later and later, there was no indication that they were any closer to a deal for Santana than they were four days ago. In fact, if anything, the momentum seemed to be in the opposite direction. Officials from other clubs said several of the Yankees’ baseball personnel at the meetings had begun openly questioning whether they even wanted to make this trade if the Twins said yes. “The more this goes on,” said one AL executive, “the less they want to do it.”

And in the other corner, hailing from Sports Illustrated and the proud city of New York is Jon Heyman, with a report that the Yankees and Twins are at an impasse:

With the Yankees and Twins making limited progress as the Yanks’ self-imposed midnight deadline came and went, the Twins have rekindled talks with the Red Sox and are asking Boston to present a deal including top young lefthander Jon Lester.

People involved in the talks said they believe the situation is coming to a head and that Minnesota will make its call, one way or the other, in fairly short order. The Yankees have been seen as the favorite, but Boston may have renewed hope based upon the midnight phone call.

The Twins, according to Heyman, want Ian Kennedy or Alan Horne and Austin Jackson in addition to Phil Hughes and Mekly Cabrera. To which I say, “Yeah, right.”

Meanwhile, the Twins say they were “amused” by Hank Steinbrenner’s meaningless deadline. Of course, that deadline is only meaningless if the Red Sox don’t scale back their offer under the assumption that the Yanks are truly uninterested in Johan Santana.

For the Yanks’ part, the deadline just shows the internal divide over trading Phil Hughes. They’re not about to turn their backs on Johan Santana just yet, and it sure would be hard to argue against a rotation fronted by Santana, Pettitte, Wang and Joba Chamberlain, however.

Is a member of the Save the Big Three coalition beginning to crack? Stay tuned tomorrow.

Update 1:46: This Jayson Stark article has more info. The Twins didn’t extend a counterproposal after the Yanks rejected the 4-for-1 offer Heyman mentioned, and they reiterated their stance in regards to keeping Ian Kennedy. This could be falling apart for now. But “for now” is simply temporary when it comes to the Yankees.