Will he stay or will he go?

I don't know about the rest of you, but my head is spinning from all the Johan Santana trade rumors. Will it be the Yankees, or the Red Sox? Will Melky Cabrera be our new centerfielder, or Jacoby Ellsbury? Have the Yankees really given the Twins a deadline? Has Johan really ordered the Twins to only have discussion with those two teams? Was Hank Steinbrenner really dumb enough to violate MLB tampering rules?

For the record, ESPN is reporting that the Red Sox now have the upper hand in the negotiations with the Yankee-imposed deadline of Monday night having passed. The potential deal has the Twins getting either a) pitcher Jon Lester, centerfielder Coco Crisp, minor league SS Jed Lowrie and another prospect or b) Jacoby Ellsbury, Lowrie, and pitching prospect Justin Masterson. The New York Daily News says the Yankees have moved on, and are now looking at Oakland A's pitcher Dan Haren.

It's really hard to separate the fact from fiction when it comes to baseball's winter meetings. My take is that the Red Sox don't really want Santana, but are merely trying to push the Yankees out of the negotiations, which could mean that Bill Smith ends up leaving Nashville without having made a deal. And if that happens, then the Twins might get less for Santana than they had hoped. Me, I would have taken the Yankees deal of Cabrera, pitcher Phil Hughes, and another prospect.

Stay tuned.

I could use a break from the trade talks as well. Let's make tomorrow to trade talk Wednesday.