LOS ANGELES _ Minutes before Monday's 1 p.m. trade deadline, the Los Angeles Angels dealt left-hander Hector Santiago and a minor league reliever to Minnesota for starting pitchers Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer and cash.
The Angels also traded right-handed reliever Joe Smith to the Chicago Cubs for minor league pitching prospect Jesus Castillo.
An All-Star a year ago, Santiago started this season poorly but rebounded to record a 1.78 earned-run average in July. He had a 3.82 ERA in three seasons as an Angel, and 4.25 in 2016.
Nolasco, 33, is a Los Angeles native and veteran right-hander who has performed awfully since signing a four-year, $48 million contract with the Twins in December 2013, after the Dodgers acquired him at that year's trade deadline. He owns a 5.44 ERA in 321 innings over parts of three seasons, and is due roughly $4.2 million between now and season's end, and $12 million next year.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, the Twins are covering the difference between the money due to him and due to Santiago, who stands to make about $8 million in his final year of arbitration.
Meyer, a 2011 first-round pick, was a consensus top-50 prospect across baseball as recently as last season, but has hardly pitched this year because of a shoulder injury. At age 26, the 6-foot-9 hard-throwing right-hander is expected to return soon. Some scouts wonder whether he will end up pitching out of the bullpen, but he will begin as a starter with the Angels.
The minor leaguer the Angels ceded, 25-year-old Alan Busenitz, was recently called up to triple-A Salt Lake, where he had struggled in 13 innings after dominating Double-A. The 2013 25th-rounder has been clocked throwing his fastball as hard as 99 mph.
Smith, in the final year of a three-year, $15.75 million deal, will be a free agent at the end of the season. With the Angels 14 {-games back in the American League West entering Monday, it made sense for them to get what they could for the submarine-throwing right-hander.
Castillo, who features a fastball in the low-90-mph range and a good changeup, went 2-3 with a 3.27 ERA in seven starts for Class-A Eugene this season, with 38 strikeouts and 11 walks in 33 innings.
The 6-foot-2, 165-pound Castillo, who was not ranked among the Cubs' top 30 prospects by mlbpipeline.com, is 6-11 with a 4.12 ERA in five minor league seasons. He is expected to report to the Angels' Class-A affiliate in Burlington, Iowa.
Smith, 32, was a key component of a strong bullpen that helped the Angels win the division in 2014, going 7-2 with a 1.81 earned-run average and 15 saves in 76 games. He went 5-5 with a 3.58 ERA and five saves in 70 games in 2015 and was 1-4 with a 3.82 ERA in 38 games this season.
Smith missed most of this June because of a left-hamstring strain that began bothering him in mid-May, and he struggled in his return from the disabled list, giving up five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings of his first five appearances of July.
The low point of his season came in a July 9 game in Baltimore in which Smith, with the Angels clinging to a 2-1 lead, dropped the ball while his foot was on the rubber and he was looking in for the catcher's sign in the seventh inning.
Smith was called for a balk that allowed the Orioles to score the tying run. He then gave up the eventual winning run in the eighth inning of a 3-2 loss and lost his primary setup role to hard-throwing right-hander Cam Bedrosian, who is 2-0 with an 0.92 ERA in 43 games.
But since that fateful day in Camden Yards, Smith has not been charged with a run in eight appearances, a stretch in which he has allowed five hits, struck out three and not walked a batter in 7 1/3 innings.
It is this kind of resiliency that has made Smith, who is 40-27 with a 2.94 ERA and 29 saves in 10 seasons with the New York Mets (2007-2008), Cleveland Indians (2009-2012) and Angels (2014-2016), such a reliable late-inning reliever for so long.
The Angels explored trades for several other players on their major league roster, but did not come to any agreements. None of them are on expiring contracts such as Smith's, removing the need to trade them now or obtain no value in return.
Third baseman Yunel Escobar, with a $7 million team option for next season or a $1 million buyout, was a candidate to be dealt, but concerns about his clubhouse behavior lessened his market. Hitting .322, the 33-year-old could still be traded in the off-season.
Also remaining with the team was closer Huston Street, who has struggled this season and is due $9 million in 2017. The Angels received significant interest in Bedrosian and starter Matt Shoemaker, but opted to keep both controllable assets.
