The Hector Santiago trade isn’t bad, but Angels fans had a meltdown anyway

Yesterday, the Angels made a couple moves right at the stroke of trade deadline midnight, one of which was sending Hector Santiago to the Twins for Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer.

Santiago was well liked by the fans, and he was coming off of a extra-hot month of July that saw him go 6-0 for the Halos. As you can guess, this trade was met with a lot of anger. A LOT.

The move was not about acquiring Nolasco; it was about taking a gamble on Alex Meyer finally realizing his supposed potential and becoming a big arm for the Angels in the future...hopefully...MAYBE. That’s the rub of trading, though; you have to give up some of your goods to get goods in return, or even a lotto ticket type player.

Some of the Angels fanbase just really didn’t recognize this on the outset, and in fact they may still be yelling into their computers at home. I’ve curated some of the more excited responses from Angels Twitter yesterday.

Here are the Why Didn’t You Trade The Player That Has No Trade Value?!?! people:

Here are the entry-level I Hate The Team So Much Right Now!!! people:

Here’s the requisite Crying, For Reals guy:

The lone I Miss The Disney Era guy:

The Expert Analysis Angels Fans give us their expert trade analysis:

This back and forth is just a good example of how Twitter isn’t always the best place to go for baseball info:

The Mike Trout Is Going To Hate The Angels Because Of This Trade faction:

The ??????????????????? segment of fans:

Rough stuff there from the Angels faithful, but that’s to be expected when these deals go down, especially if the move involves someone like Santiago, who was well liked off the field. The takeaway, though, is that it’s always tricky to rush to judgement, or to look at these deals on just the surface level.

Santiago wasn’t traded for Ricky Nolasco...Nolasco was just a piece that had to be involved for the deal, which is REALLY for Alex Meyer, to work. You get a back end starter to replace the back end starter you just lost, and you get the coveted prospect (although Meyer is 26...hardly prospect age there) that you wanted. That’s how the trade deadline sausage is made.

I learned this lesson last year, when I saw that Erick Aybar and two top prospects were traded for Andrelton Simmons. I immediately wished the Angels would pump the brakes on that one, but that was just my love of seeing Aybar at SS for all those years, mixed with the thought of losing a couple young arms, clouding my judgement. As soon as the dust began to settle even just a little bit, I began to understand...and LOVE...that trade. Still love it to this day.

There is some possible magic in yesterday’s dealings, too, but it’ll take time to see it come to fruition. Of course, for my sake, don’t let that get in the way of letting those fiery takes get shot off into the internet ether. Nothing is more entertaining than some classic community meltdowns. Then, once the dust settles, we’ll be here to talk you down.