The Royals Trading Carlos Santana Was Overdue, but It Worked
On Monday, the Kansas City Royals made a couple of moves that shook up both the present and future pictures of the club. First, the Royals traded first baseman Carlos Santana and cash considerations (nearly $4.3 million) to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for minor league pitchers Wyatt Mills and William Fleming. After that, they promoted first base prospect Vinnie Pasquantino to the big-league level so he could take Santana's place.
With these moves come plenty of questions that undoubtedly arise. Was the Royals' double-edged patience with Santana and Pasquantino worth it? Did they get enough in return for their trade? What does this mean for Kansas City moving forward? Some of the Inside the Royals crew recently gathered to discuss that in a roundtable. Without further ado, let's jump in.
Trevor Hahn: I first off want to say that the return for Carlos Santana is the second thought on this trade. He was blocking two of the more important prospects to the Royals’ future and was never going to produce at a rate that justifies that. The return really is better than I thought it’d be, though.
Since they sent money over with him, the Royals get back a pitcher who’s already debuted in the bigs and should be knocking on the door again soon and a younger pitcher that was at the tail end of the Mariners' top-30 prospect list. I am not confident in the pitching development of this organization at the moment, but there should be hope that one of these two arms can pan out. That is a major win for a fan base that was begging Santana to get DFA’d a month ago.
Mark Van Sickle: This was a win-win for the Royals. They got rid of Carlos Santana and added a couple of pitching prospects, one of whom has been very good this season in Triple-A. The Carlos Santana experience in Kansas City will be remembered as a disappointment. He was a veteran presence at a time that the team didn't really need it, and he was underwhelming a majority of the time but heated up at the end of his tenure, which enabled the trade to the Mariners. If either of these pitchers pans out, I will give Santana credit for at least bringing them into the fold.
Jerry Edwards: It might be time to give Dayton Moore his flowers, because he got a decent amount of value for this trade. The Mariners are considered to have a top-five farm system in baseball, so getting a top-30 player is definitely a win. Wyatt Mills might be magic beans, but he's shown promise in the minors and I’d expect to see him debut in the next couple of weeks.
How does this work out? Who knows, but the logic of the trade is sound. Last year, the Royals traded a future World Series MVP in Jorge Soler for a low-value minor league reliever in Kasey Kalich. This year, they’ve traded an older, slower and lower-upside player in Santana for an MLB-ready reliever and a guy who should slot into the Royals' top-30 prospects.
Trey Donovan: Santana's tenure with the Royals was rocky after a pretty good first half of last season. He got hurt and in typical Royals fashion, he was allowed to play through it and never truly recovered until perhaps this month. As I said in my deep dive a couple of weeks ago on him, it was sad to see a decent power bat with elite base-on-ball skills deteriorate.
With that out of the way, at least the trade return has a chance — albeit very slim — to make an impact in the majors. Mills is intriguing, but I view him as a AAAA player at the moment and Fleming has not shown a whole lot early in his pro ball career. Maybe a change of scenery helps them out. With Santana's exit, the Royals seem to be ready to bring on the youth. The Italian Nightmare is now in the majors and, hopefully, his ridiculous numbers these past two minor league seasons translate.
Jordan Foote: Giving the Royals props in retrospect is easy to do but before the month of June began, it was glaringly obvious that the club planned on riding things out with Santana for a while before promoting Pasquantino. That element had little to do with the latter (despite Kansas City's front office claiming that it wanted to see more from him) and nearly everything to do with the former. By way of either an actual resurgence or sheer dumb luck, Santana's month of June (1.032 OPS, 198 wRC+) was enough to get him traded for more than peanuts. That's a miracle in and of itself.
In regards to what the Royals are getting back, they could have done much worse than the return they secured. Mills is a player whose peripherals suggest that he isn't as good as his Triple-A ERA may show, but he's 27 years old and should just now be entering his prime. He'll get work soon with the big-league club. Fleming has very intriguing stuff and despite his shortcomings to this point, it isn't that difficult to see a world in which he reins in his command. Considering that the Royals got a pair of pitchers and freed up a path for consistent Pasquantino at-bats, it's hard to not give this trade a positive review.
Jordan Foote is the editor-in-chief of Inside the Royals, as well as the deputy editor of Arrowhead Report and a producer for Kansas City Sports Network. Jordan is a Baker University alumnus, earning his degree in Mass Media with a minor in Sports Administration. Follow him on Twitter @footenoted.