Ervin Santana Dealt to Kansas City Royals

Ken Rosenthal is reporting, via Twitter, that Ervin Santana has been dealt to the Kansas City Royals. What we are getting back in return has yet to be announced. This is the first shoe to drop in what must be a long series of moves that Dipoto needs to line up for the Halos pitching staff this off season. Dan Haren news should be next, and should arrive any hour now one might guess.

But this wraps up Santana's career as an LA Angel. The mercurial righty appeared in 236 games over the course of 8 seasons and gave us a career era of 4.33. Ever the up-and-down performer, we saw Ervin begin to oscillate into strong seasons in the even years and poor seasons in the odd years - until we hit 2012. This past year it all fell apart and resulted in his second worst season (versus 2007) of his career to date.

The highlight of Santana's tenure is, of course, his no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians back on July 27, 2011. The stuff is in that small frame and lively arm. One wonders, though, how much stuff got lost between the ears. Kansas City is a franchise on the rise. Could it be that Ervin becomes our Pedro Martinez, finding the ejection the motivation to hunker down and become dominant for a future playoff opponent? Nah!

So, before we start scanning about to find out what is happening to Dan Haren (or, perhaps what already has happened, hat tip to 2pintsofbooze?), the immediate question becomes: "What did Dipoto get back from KC???"

UPDATE #1: Rosenthal, over at Fox Sports, is reporting that the Royals are sending back one Brandon Sisk. "The Royals are sending LHP Brandon Sisk to the Angels. Sisk, 27, spent last season as a reliever at Triple A, posting a 2.54 ERA in 50 games." You can read up on his Minor League stats at BBR here.

UPDATE #2: Here is a Royals prospect review of Sisk from last off-season. Sisk was a non-roster invitee to the Royals camp last year (after this was written) and, as we know, did not make the club. The same thing happened to him in the 2011 ST as well.

UPDATE #3: I found this "Getting To Know" interview with Sisk from a couple of years ago, which includes a little nugget about his path to pro baseball: "Well I got hurt my junior year and certain things just didn’t work out so didn’t go back for my senior year. So I went to work for my cousin in Sacramento doing drywall. One day my dad called me and told me they are starting a new independent league in Texas and if I was interested that he would get me a plane ticket so I could try out. I got selected in the first round and played there for a year and half before getting signed by the Royals."

UPDATE #4: The Halos sent $1 million cash to the Royals along with Santana.