Santana off to a supernatural start

If Carlos Santana gets to the majors and lasts long enough, someday I'll probably stop punning on the other, slightly more famous Carlos Santana, the one who plays the guitar. But that day hasn't come yet.

Anyway, the catcher Carlos Santana is one of the key reasons the Indians were willing to trade both Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach last year. He just turned 24 on Thursday, and celebrated by going 4-for-5 with two home runs and a double in Columbus' 17-4 opening-day win over Indianapolis. It was Santana's AAA debut. He followed that with a two-run jack and a double in last night's 14-12 loss. Santana hit .290 with 23 home runs last year in Akron, and is considered one of the top catching prospects in baseball. He was expected to open this season on the disabled list because he broke his hand playing winter ball, but healed fast, and appears to be nearly ready for the bigs.

The Indians' current big-league catcher, Lou Marson, acquired in the Martinez trade, is only three months older than Santana, and is a decent prospect in his own right. But Santana is the Tribe's catcher of the future. At some point, probably this year, Marson will either be traded to make room for Santana or become his backup. I would wrap this up with my own super-insightful conclusion, but ESPN's Rob Neyer beat me to it, and I can't really improve on his:

So, yeah: Marson's a perfectly fine place-holder, but it would be lovely for the Indians if he played so well over the next month or two or three -- however long it takes Santana to force his way into the majors -- they could flip him for a catcher-hungry team and get another prospect (or two). Because the Indians are essentially playing one game: Prospect Acquisition. Get enough of them, and they can compete in a weak division every year. Don't get enough, and just hope to get lucky every few years. At this point they're doing well with hitters, but the jury's still out (way out) with pitchers. And they have to hit on both.

I do want to add one thing: One of Santana's homers came two pitches after a purpose pitch that was thrown behind him. So the guy's pretty unflappable, too.