Right hander Ervin Santana was traded to the Kansas City Royals by the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday in exchange for Brandon Sisk, the minor league left-hander.
Santana has been with Los Angeles throughout his career. They signed him in 2000. It really helped Santana transform into a solid starter in the past few years.
He finishes his career with the Angels with a 96-30 record and a 4.30 ERA in 236 career appearances, which includes 233 starts.
"We're proud to have him, and he certainly fits with what we're doing in 2013," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
Santana was seen struggling for a large part in the previous season going 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA. He gave up an MLB high 39 homers -- although there were improvements in the final two months.
"I have to realize that this is a business," Santana said of the deal. "They trade me, and I just have to accept it and move on.
"It's going to be hard because I've known my teammates for a long time, but now I'm going to have new teammates. I can't wait to meet them in person and hang out."
Santana attributed his lackluster performances to bad luck. "I don't have any physical problems," he added. "Everything was good. I just have bad luck. I was pitching good, and I didn't have the opportunity to win a lot of games."
Angels GM Jerry Dipoto said it would be a new beginning for Santana. "Ervin had a lot of really great moments with the Angels, and has always been an Angel. This is just the start of something new for Ervin, and we wish him well."
Moore said Santana had been pretty impressive in the last few months and they were happy to have him although no long-term plans were discussed. "We were able to scout Ervin during the entire year, specifically the second half.
"His August and September were really good. From a statistical standpoint, he was very good."
Santana had a few successful years with the Angles, including a three season-stretch with at least 16 victories and an All-Star selection in 2008.
Dipoto said of Santana's struggles last season: "Ervin struggled out of the chute. I think his struggles were more relative to his command than his physical stuff. Once he determined that his issue was command, he throttled back his fastball a little bit and tried to gain command of his slider and pitched very well for us.
"To say Ervin's season was a failure would be unfair. Ervin's season was very uneven, and he took it down the stretch and gave us an opportunity to be in the race until the final week of the season."
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