ROYALS LAND STARTER SANTANA
The Kansas City Royals acquired pitcher Ervin Santana and cash from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for pitcher Brandon Sisk.
What does it give the Kansas City Royals
Few teams in Major League Baseball need starting pitching more than the Royals, so landing Santana is a nice starting point. While he's not a true ace, he is likely to be Kansas City's No. 1 starter in 2013 (barring more big moves for starting pitching). Santana lacks consistency but doesn't lack the big-league stuff needed to regularly get batters out at this level. The Royals didn't give up much here, except the financial commitment to Santana. They had to make this deal.
What does it give the Los Angeles Angels
The Angels are retooling their starting rotation a little this off-season, so Santana became the first victim. Dan Haren is also expected to be traded soon. The Halos' prime motivation in making this deal at this time was to shed Santana's salary (pure and simple). Sisk isn't much of a prospect, and he isn't even on the team's 40-man roster (yet), but the journeyman reliever could stick as a situational lefty next spring.
Fantasy impact
Santana's fantasy value gets a little spike after this deal, since he's absolutely guaranteed to be a frontline starter in Kansas City (while with the Angels he was in and out of the rotation plans quite often). That said, he moves from a good team to a rebuilding outfit, so wins may be harder to come by. Sisk offers little fantasy value. Young Angels starters such as Garrett Richards and Brad Mills could be the biggest winners in terms of fantasy value following this deal.
