IT'S FINALLY OVER!!!

The mind-numbing Santana sweepstakes have finally come to an end.

And he's going to the Mets.

The Minnesota Twins and New York Mets have agreed on a deal sending Johan Santana over to Shea for four prospects. Here are the details from Bob Nightengale of USA Today:

The New York Mets have agreed to a trade for two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, giving up four prospects to acquire the left-handed ace of the Minnesota Twins, according to two high-ranking Twins officials with knowledge of the talks and a person close to Santana.

The deal is pending the Mets and Santana reaching agreement on a six- or seven-year contract extension and that Santana passes a physical; they have been granted a 48 to-72-hour window to do so. Santana has a no-trade clause that he will waive if agreement is reached on a contract extension.

The Mets paid a high price in prospects to land Santana, agreeing to send the Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey.

This looks like a steal for the Mets, but frankly, who cares? It's better than Johan going to Boston, or the Yankees having to part with Phil Hughes, who I think will be an ace in this league for years to come. But neither outcome seems to have been a real possibility.

Buster Olney was on 1050 ESPN Radio, and said the Yankees and Red Sox were never really major players in this. The Yankees weren't going to part with Phil Hughes, and Boston seemed to only be in this to bring up the price for the Yankees.

He also said that the deal got wrapped up today because Johan Santana set a Tuesday deadline with the Twins.

Now if what Olney said isn't the case, and both teams were really in this up to the end, then Bill Smith looks like a fool. He trades arguably the best pitcher in baseball, for what ESPN calls "a package which some talent evaluators believe could be the fourth-best offer that Minnesota received." From what I've been reading he looks like a fool anyway to Twins fans who believe he could have gotten a better deal. If I were Mr. Smith I wouldn't read a newspaper or listen to sports-talk radio for the next few weeks.