Angels acquire Haren for four players

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Angels have acquired starting pitcher Dan Haren from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for three pitchers and a player to be named later.

Left-hander Joe Saunders heads to the Diamondbacks along with minor league pitchers Rafael Rodriguez and Patrick Corbin.

Haren is 7-8 this season with a 4.60 earned run average. The three-times All-Star has averaged 15 wins a season over the last four years.

"We really felt good about our starting five moving forward, but this is a huge opportunity for us to upgrade," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told reporters.

"Not only now but the next couple years. He's definitely a guy who's pitched in big games. He has his stuff and is a young veteran. It gives us a deeper front of the rotation. That's what every championship-caliber team strives to do."

In eight seasons with St. Louis, Oakland and Arizona, Haren is 86-70 with a 3.71 ERA.

Haren said he was excited to head back west where he has family, but sad to leave his old team mates.

"I did have some good years here, this year hasn't been that great personally but I was brought here to put us over the top," he said. "It didn't happen that way unfortunately."

Saunders, an All-Star in 2008 and the Angels second starter in their rotation, was 6-10 this season with a career high 4.62 ERA.

Rodriguez, 25, is a right-handed relief pitcher with Triple-A Salt Lake and has 10 saves this season. Twenty-one-year-old Corbin is a left-handed starter and is 13-3 in 20 starts in Single-A.

(Reporting by Mike Mouat in Windsor, Ontario. Editing by Ian Ransom)