The Kansas City Royals announced today that the club has acquired right-handed starting pitcher Ervin Santana and cash from the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for minor league left-handed pitcher Brandon Sisk.

“We’ve stated all along that starting pitching was a priority this off-season and acquiring someone with the resume of Ervin Santana immediately upgrades our rotation,” said Royals GM Dayton Moore. “At just 29 years old, he has 96 major league wins, is a proven innings eater and most importantly, he competes. Ervin has been an All-Star, has pitched in the post-season and has at least 16 wins in three different years, all of which adds a winning mindset to our clubhouse.”

The 29-year-old Santana, an American League All-Star in 2008, is 96-80 with a 4.33 ERA in 236 career Major League appearances (233 starts), all coming with the Angels since his debut in 2005. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander was 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA in 30 starts in 2012, finishing the season with a 3.63 ERA in his final 10 starts, allowing 45 hits over 62.0 innings with 55 strikeouts against 16 walks. He authored a one-hit shutout of the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 16 in Anaheim, joining Nolan Ryan and the only two Angels pitchers to have a no-hitter and a one-hitter.

Santana has topped the 200-innings mark in three of the last five seasons, including combining for 629.1 innings since 2010. He has allowed fewer hits (1,444) than innings pitched (1,475.2) over his career and posted a combined opponent batting average of .240 over the last two seasons. Santana has a career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.46 and has never posted a season below 2.00 in his career. He tossed a no-hitter on July 27, 2011 at Cleveland, allowing an unearned run in a 3-1 victory and recorded 11 double-digit strikeout games in his career to this point.

Sisk, 27, signed with the Royals as a minor league free agent on July 8, 2008. The left-handed reliever went 3-2 with eight saves and compiled a 2.54 ERA in 50 outings with Omaha (AAA) in 2012.