Associated Press

The Minnesota Twins won their arbitration case Friday
with left-handed pitcher Johan Santana, whose 2004
salary will be $1.6 million.

In siding with the Twins, the three-person panel in
Arizona gave major league clubs a 3-2 lead in
arbitration cases this season. Santana, who earned
$335,000 last season, requested a salary of $2.45
million.

"The only thing that comes out of this is whether you
win or lose," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said.
"We happened to prevail in this case, so we're not
celebrating in any sense. It's time to move on."

Santana, 12-3 with a 3.07 ERA in 2003, began in the
bullpen before moving into the rotation in the summer
and winding up as the Twins' top starter for the
playoffs. He'll likely head into spring training as
the No. 1, followed by Brad Radke and Kyle Lohse.

Twins first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz has a hearing
scheduled for next week if the two sides can't meet
somewhere in the middle before then. Mientkiewicz
asked for $3.6 million after earning $1.75 million
last season. The team proposed $2.5 million.

Santana's Twins statistics

Year W-L ERA G GS IP H R ER BB SO

2000 2-3 6.49 30 5 86.0 102 64 62 54 64

2001 1-0 4.74 15 4 43.2 50 25 23 16 28

2002 8-6 2.99 27 14 108.1 84 41 36 49 137

2003 12-3 3.07 45 18 158.1 127 56 54 47 169

Totals 23-12 3.97 117 41 396.1 363 186 175 166 398

February 13, 2004

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