Joe Christensen writes that the Twins are holding out for the deal they want in order to trade Santana. Fred Claire did the same:

I tried finding a precedent to this madness, and former Dodgers GM Fred Claire has a similar memory. He was a first-year GM heading into the 1987 winter meetings, and he made it known that pitcher Bob Welch was available. Soon, the whole industry was waiting for that development.

"In some sense, we were controlling the tempo of the winter meetings," Claire said in a telephone interview this week. "In fact, [then Mets GM] Joe McIlvaine said, 'Nothing can happen because Fred's holding up the winter meetings.' "

Claire held his ground. Finally, he swung a three-team deal with the A's and Mets that brought the Dodgers shortstop Alfredo Griffin and relievers Jay Howell and Jesse Orosco. Welch went to Oakland, but the three new Dodgers helped them defeat the A's in the 1988 World Series.

My guess is that the Red Sox and Yankees would be happy to have the Twins pull out of the deals entirely, so that neither side gets the pitcher. Then the GMs can go ahead and develop their own talent.

Update: It looks like the Red Sox added Ellsbury to the deal, but told the Twins they can't have both Jacoby and Lester.