MLB: Can Former Pitcher Johan Santana Make a Comeback?

Former Minnesota Twins and New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana is hoping to pitch in MLB again in 2017.

It’s been four years since Johan Santana last pitched in a major league game. Since that time, he’s battled repeated injuries and made a couple of comeback attempts, but setbacks have plagued him. He’s not one to give up easily, though. It’s being reported that he plans to pitch winter ball in Venezuela in the hopes of landing a contract for the 2017 season. He’ll be 38 years old next March.

At one time, Santana was among the best pitchers in baseball. Over an eight-year stretch from 2003 to 2010, the only pitcher in baseball with more WAR than Santana was Roy Halladay (per Fangraphs). He led the league in ERA and strikeouts three times each, innings twice, was a four-time All-Star, and finished in the top seven in Cy Young voting six straight years, winning the award in 2004 and 2006.

In fact, Santana should have won three straight Cy Youngs. In 2005, he finished third to Bartolo Colon and Mariano Rivera, even though he was worth three more wins than Colon and four more than Rivera. That was one of the great injustices of award seasons past. Santana outpitched Colon in every way possible except for wins. Consider the numbers:

16-7, 2.87 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 231.7 IP, 238 K, 7.1 WAR—Johan Santana

21-8, 3.48 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 222.7 IP, 157 K, 4.1 WAR—Bartolo Colon

Bartolo won five more games. Of course, he pitched for the 95-win Los Angeles Angels and received 6.0 runs per game from his offense, seventh-most in the league for starting pitchers. Santana won 16 games, but his Twins only won 83 games and Santana had 4.7 runs per game of support. Santana should have won that Cy Young. It would have given him three in a row.

If Santana had been dating Kate Upton back then, she would have been even more angry than she was this year when Justin Verlander didn’t win the Cy Young. Of course, she would have been only 13 at the time, so it’s good she wasn’t dating Johan Santana.

At his best, the left-handed Santana featured a fastball, a slider, and a terrific change up that regularly caught batters off balance. On August 19, 2007, he struck out 17 hitters in eight innings against the Texas Rangers. His 17 strikeouts set the Twins record for strikeouts in a game.

Before Santana became one of the best pitchers in baseball, he was a 16-year-old free agent signed out of Venezuela by the Houston Astros in July of 1995. He was not very successful as a minor league pitcher in the Astros organization, so they left him unprotected after the 1999 season. The Florida Marlins took him in the Rule 5 draft that year, then traded him to the Minnesota Twins for Jared Camp.

Because he was a Rule 5 pick, Santana had to remain on the major league roster for the entire 2000 season. He had a 6.49 ERA in 86 innings, pitching mostly out of the bullpen. His second year was slightly better, but still not good. He started to show promise with a strong 2002 season, then began his terrific stretch described above.

Very few Rule 5 picks turn out as good as Johan Santana.

After eight years with the Twins, Santana was traded to the Mets in February of 2008 for Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey. His first three years with the Mets were good. He was 40-25 with a 2.85 ERA in 600 innings. Unfortunately, he battled injuries along the way. His 2010 season ended in early September and he had shoulder surgery that would cause him to miss the entire 2011 season.

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Santana came back in 2012 and was the Mets’ Opening Day starter. Through his first nine starts, he had a 3.24 ERA in 50 innings. He pitched a shutout against the San Diego Padres on May 26 and followed it with a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 1. During his no-hitter, Santana struck out eight, walked five, and threw 134 pitches. Through his first 11 starts, Santana looked like the Santana of old. He had a 2.38 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 68 innings.

It was all downhill from there. Santana gave up 10 earned runs in 10 innings over his next two starts. He recovered to have a few solid outings, then got blasted for 19 runs in three starts in July and went on the DL with a sprained ankle. He came off the DL for two starts in August but was terrible, allowing 14 runs in 6 1/3 innings. He was placed on the DL again, this time with inflammation in his lower back.

Before the 2013 regular season got going, Santana re-tore his shoulder capsule and had a second surgery that cause him to miss the entire season. In November, the Mets bought out his 2014 option.

Santana has attempted to make it back to the big leagues in each of the last three seasons. He signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 2014 but tore his Achilles tendon and never pitched for their organization. He signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015, but never got healthy enough and announced he was ending his season because of a toe infection in June. Last year, his agent made it known that Santana was hoping to sign with a team and would be ready to pitch during the season, but it never happened.

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So here we are once again, with Santana hoping to return to the major leagues. Back in February of 2014, it was reported that his fastball topped out at 81 mph, which is 45-year-old Jamie Moyer territory. There’s no word on his fastball velocity now, but more will be known if he makes it back to the mound in Venezuela. It’s a long shot for Santana to make it back to the bigs after missing four seasons, but he’s a guy worth rooting for.