The idea of Carlos Santana getting traded this season was never far-fetched. Still, it was a move that Pirates manager Derek Shelton could only describe as “challenging.”
Santana was sent to the Milwaukee Brewers last week, bringing an end to a roughly four-month run in Pittsburgh. The 37-year-old first baseman was on a one-year deal, and playing on a fledgling Pirates team, he long was likely to get moved at the deadline.
The addition of Santana was part of an offseason that saw the Pirates load up on veterans, with Rich Hill and Ji-man Choi --who both got traded to the Padres on Tuesday -- among the others. Those types of players can be great for helping to bring along youngsters, and that was a major benefit of having Santana around.
Shelton said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on The Cook & Joe Show that it was tough parting with Santana.
“It was a challenging trade," Shelton admitted. "He was a guy, I think we have talked about throughout the course of the year that we targeted to bring in for a specific reason. No. 1, the infield defense, which got even better, it was probably the best year of his career over there. He was stabilizing in the middle of our lineup.
“And then, like you said, in our clubhouse with the younger Latin players we have. And that’s not just specific to Latin players -- Carlos was having conversations with Henry Davis about things. So yeah, it was challenging. It was challenging for me because I have known him for a long time going back to when I was in Cleveland and he was traded to Cleveland.
“But ultimately, it’s one of those things that we felt what was best for us moving forward was to move him. But yeah, it was a challenging conversation.”
Because the trade went down on an off day, the Pirates had to inform Santana over the phone.
Santana, who was sent from Kansas City to Seattle in a trade last season, took the news in stride – even delivering a little quip to Shelton at the end.
“Ben (Cherington) gave (the news) to him, and then I talked to him right after that,” Shelton said. “I think he got to the point where he knew there was a chance he would be traded. He was traded last year at the deadline, veteran players understand those situations.
"So he handled it exactly how you wanted him to, and then he said to me ‘Alright, I’ll see you next week’ because we play the Brewers in three days. And then I’ll have an opportunity then to probably sit down and talk to him, give him a hug because we did it when it had to be over the phone.”
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