Last month, I wrote that the New York Mets were not to be taken seriously in the Johan Santana sweepstakes. A person with knowledge of the negotiations told me that Mets owner Fred Wilpon was against the idea of signing any pitcher to the kind of contract extension Santana is seeking.

A turning point came when Wilpon gave the green light to GM Omar Minaya. If Minaya swings the trade, as I wrote about today, Wilpon is confident he’ll get Santana signed. In the Mets’ camp, there is a belief that the price for Santana won’t be quite as high as advertised. Santana might ask for a six-year, $150 million extension, but there’s a belief teams could negotiate down from there.

I think that’s correct, but I don’t think it’s as simple as Hank Steinbrenner is making it sound. Earlier this week, he told Newsday: “I wouldn’t do it if it were a six- or seven-year contract. I wouldn’t go past five, on an extension.”

Perhaps the Yankees would try to entice Santana with five-year, $125 million offer — matching Santana’s yearly asking price but saving themselves one year. Maybe Santana would take that, although the Twins were left to believe he was very serious about holding a seven-year deal. He has one year remaining on his current contract and wants six more.

I think it’s a mistake for these teams to believe Santana’s price is coming down. And I think it’s a mistake to assume the Yankees wouldn’t give him a six-year extension. Keep in mind, Hank also said the Yankees absolutely wouldn’t have Alex Rodriguez back after he opted out of his contract. Until they did.

The Yankees said they absolutely wouldn’t give Jorge Posada a four-year deal. Until they did. And during the winter meetings, Hank said the Yankees absolutely, positively were pulling out of the Santana sweepstakes when the Twins didn’t meet their deadline.

Five weeks later, here we are.

We are checking daily for any movement in the Johan Santana trade discussions, and so far this week, we haven’t detected any. The Twins still appear to be a stand-still in their discussions with the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets. No other team appears to be a serious contender, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear otherwise.

Quick note: The Twins are slated to have three of the first 31 picks in this year’s amateur draft. They have the 14th pick, and No. 27 (from the Angels for the Torii Hunter signing) and No. 31 (the first supplemental pick, also courtesy of the Hunter signing). You can see the entire order in this Q&A session with Baseball America writer Jim Callis.

Bert Blyleven didn’t get elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, but he made a big enough jump to suggest he’ll get there eventually.

In his 11th year on the ballot, Blyleven received 61.9 percent of the vote. A player needs 75 percent of the vote to gain entry, and they are eligible on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot for up to 15 years.

Blyleven’s percentage slipped from 53 percent to 47 percent in the previous two elections, but he just got a 15 percent bump. He finished fourth in the balloting behind Goose Gossage (86 percent, the only player elected this year), Jim Rice (72 percent) and Andre Dawson (66 percent).

In his ninth year on the ballot, Jack Morris received 42.9 percent of the vote. That’s up from 37 percent last year, but he probably would have felt better about his eventual chances if he had been closer to 50.

Update: I spoke to Bert, and he was in good spirits. He said his wife, Gayle, predicted he’d receive 62 percent of the vote, and she was right.

“I’m very happy for Goose Gossage,” he said. “That’s something that should have happened years ago. I know Goose vented last year, and Jim Rice will probably vent this year. You find yourself — when you get to close, and you know your numbers are there — you get upset. I was upset before, and now I just look at it and say it’s out of my hands, what can I do?”

If you’re one of those people who has to know first, you can find this year’s Hall of Fame election results by clicking on baseballhall.org, Tuesday at 1 p.m. (Central).

This was my second year voting, and it continues to be a hair-pulling decision process. I made eight selections, down from nine a year ago. Many will argue that I was still too generous:

My chosen eight: Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rich Gossage, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Alan Trammell.

My notable snubs: Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Dave Parker, Lee Smith.

I thought Roger Clemens sounded fairly convincing during his “60 Minutes” interview with Mike Wallace last night. If you missed it, you can see the segment here.

Clemens lost me when he spoke of his reluctance to sue Brian McNamee, the trainer who accused Clemens in the Mitchell Report of receiving multiple steroid and HGH injections.

“I don’t know if I can defend myself,” Clemens said. “I think people — a lot of people have already made their decisions. And that’s our country, isn’t it? Guilty before innocence — that’s the way our country works now. And then everybody’s talking about sue, sue, sue. Should I sue? Well, yeah, let me exhaust — let me, let me just spend,” he said, gesturing as if he were peeling off bills.

“Let me keep spending. But I’m going to explore what I can do, and then I want to see if it’s going to be worth it, worth all the headache.”

According to baseballreference.com, Clemens has earned at least $121 million in salary over his career, and that’s not even counting 2006 and 2007, when he returned from retirement with the Astros and Yankees. So the figure is probably closer to $160 million (also not counting endorsements).

Now that Clemens has taken this one step further and sued McNamee for defamation, his denials have gained more credibility. It seems to be Clemens’ word against McNamee’s at this point, and while there have been suspicions about Clemens’ steroid use in the past, he’s innocent until proven guilty in my book.

Clemens will be holding a press conference today at 4 p.m., broadcast live on ESPN2.