Maybe this did not work out completely according to plan in the mind of Johan Santana. But nonetheless he is headed to New York, to a competitive team, and is guaranteed to receive one of the fattest pitching contracts in the history of baseball.

But surely Santana was banking on joining either of the two early favorites to land the soon-to-be-ex-Twins pitcher — the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox.

After months of brushing away big deals for Santana, the Minnesota Twins finally bit on a deal that sent their ace to the Mets for four minor leaguers. The trade will be complete when the Mets open up their checkbook and unload truckloads of zeros on Santana’s bank account.

This trade is a minor win for the masses who are sick of hearing about how the Yankees and Red Sox are the only two teams in baseball when it comes to free agency and trades in the off season. Year after year, star after star, the two most competitive teams sword fight with their checkbooks and, eventually, land whatever great talent is available, sparking yet another round of speculation as to which of the “only two teams in baseball trying to win” are going to be the last standing in the winter.

Hearing about the Yanks and BoSox every trade and signing gets tiresome after a while. I understand completely that the two teams are simply taking advantage of an imbalanced system where the richer teams benefit from their larger markets and can overpay as many players as they want. The Steinbrenner family has shown through the years that the Yankees are indeed a business and much like the biggest, most successful businesses of all time — John D. Rockefeller, anyone? — they have to keep their foot on the pedal until the league shuts them down; or, in Rockefeller’s case — and Microsoft, and all those who damn-near reach the monopoly level — when the government shuts them down.

But I am past being tired of the teams for their currently legal tactics, and for the story inevitably coming out of every big signing or deal that falls through their fingertips. The league has more important issues to deal with — Clemens, Bonds and other great ball players being accused of using illegal enhancers to help their performance through their Hall of Fame caliber careers — and even in those cases they have done a poor job.

Here’s a question smarter minds should try and answer for me:

Which has a better chance of happening — NCAA football adopting a playoff system or the MLB implementing and enforcing a salary cap?