Angels Designate Jeimer Candelario For Assignment
The Angels announced that infielder Jeimer Candelario has been designated for assignment. The move creates roster space for fellow infielder Vaughn Grissom, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.
Candelario signed a minor league contract with Los Angeles during the offseason, and earned himself a spot on the Opening Day roster due to a few factors. The veteran’s big Spring Training numbers helped him stand out from some other infield candidates like Christian Moore and Kyren Paris, and Grissom was also lost to a wrist sprain. Unfortunately, Candelario couldn’t keep his Cactus League performance going into the regular season, as he hit only .111/.200/.222 over 20 plate appearances.
The cold start continues the downward slide that began after Candelario signed a three-year, $45MM free agent deal with the Reds prior to the 2024 season. Candelario hit only .225/.279/.429 over 463 PA in the first season of his contract, and Cincinnati released him last June after he batted .113/.198/.213 in his first 91 PA of the 2025 campaign. Injuries such as knee tendinitis and a lumbar spine strain certainly contributed to that falloff over the last two seasons, but Candelario was thought to be healthy heading into 2026.
The Yankees signed Candelario after his release from the Reds but didn’t use him at the MLB level, and his struggles didn’t stop the Angels from taking a flier on the 32-year-old this past winter. Another team may feel Candelario still has something in the tank, and he would cost only a prorated Major League minimum salary for any time spent on a team’s active roster, as the Reds are still responsible for the $15MM still owed on his contract.
Even if another club has interest in Candelario, however, they might not be willing to devote a 40-man roster spot to him, so it seems likely that the infielder will clear waivers. He has enough MLB service time to reject an outright assignment and then elect free agency, so Candelario can test the market again for another minor league contract.
Grissom is now set to make his Angels debut, and get his first big league action of any kind since the 2024 season. Grissom has yet to live up to the promise of his impressive 2022 rookie season with the Braves, as he struggled in 2023 and then was a bust with the Red Sox after being dealt for Chris Sale during the 2023-24 offseason. While Sale resurrected his career in Atlanta, Grissom didn’t hit in Boston, battled injuries, and soon found himself supplanted by several other up-and-coming infield prospects.
Angels Re-Sign Joey Lucchesi To Minor League Deal
The Angels announced they’ve re-signed lefty reliever Joey Lucchesi to a minor league contract. He’ll be assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Lucchesi was designated for assignment over the weekend when the Halos needed a roster spot to promote George Klassen as a spot starter. He cleared waivers and elected free agency. After a brief return to the open market, he’ll circle back to the Halos. That’s a common outcome for veterans who have the service time to refuse an outright assignment.
The 32-year-old southpaw had a very brief stint with the MLB club. He signed a major league contract at the end of Spring Training and made three appearances. Lucchesi allowed five of six hitters to reach in his season debut. He followed up with a pair of scoreless outings but walked at least one batter in all of his appearances. He wound up issuing five free passes (four walks and a hit batter) across 2 1/3 innings.
Lucchesi spent last season with the Giants. He opened the year in Triple-A but was called up in the middle of June. He remained on the active roster for the final three and a half months, turning in a 3.76 ERA over 38 1/3 innings. Lucchesi got grounders at a 53% clip but had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate that led the Giants to drop him from the 40-man roster at season’s end. He returned on a minor league contract for Spring Training and was granted his release when the Giants picked up Ryan Borucki late in camp.
Drew Pomeranz and Brent Suter are locked into Kurt Suzuki’s bullpen as veteran southpaws. The Halos recently recalled a third lefty, Mitch Farris, as a long reliever. Farris will probably be up and down from Triple-A throughout the season. Tayler Saucedo and Angel Perdomo are also in the organization on minor league deals.
Jorge Soler, Reynaldo López Given Multi-Game Suspensions
3:50pm: Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that MLB and López reach a settlement whereby his suspension is reduced to five games and he will start serving it immediately. It’s not clear if that includes today’s game, which started a few minutes after the suspension announcement.
Grant Holmes started for Atlanta today and the club is off tomorrow. On Friday, they start a series against the Guardians with Bryce Elder, Martín Pérez and Chris Sale scheduled to start. After that, they being a series against the Marlins. López’s turn in the rotation would have been the first game of that Miami series. Atlanta could instead go for Holmes on normal rest or turn to swingman José Suarez. They have Didier Fuentes and Víctor Mederos on optional assignment and could recall one of those two for a spot start.
3:00pm: Major League Baseball has announced that Angels outfielder Jorge Soler and Braves right-hander Reynaldo López have each been suspended for seven games and given undisclosed fines in relation to last night’s brawl. Both players are appealing and can continue to play until the appeals process has been completed.
López started last night’s contest for Atlanta. In the first inning, Soler launched a two-run home run off him. In the bottom of the third, Lopez hit Soler with a pitch. Soler came up again in the fifth and López threw a pitch up and in. The pitch didn’t hit Soler but he clearly took exception to it and stared López down for an extended period of time. The two exchanged words before Soler charged the mound and the two threw punches towards each other, as seen in this video from BravesVision. Both were ejected after that melee.
Players given suspensions for on-field infractions cannot be replaced on the roster. That means that the two clubs will have to play short-handed at some point. That will be on pause for now while the players are appealing.
Photo courtesy of William Navarro, Imagn Images
Angels Injury Notes: Trout, Yates, Rodriguez
Outfielder Mike Trout was back in the lineup on Tuesday against the Mariners. The future Hall of Famer was sidelined on Monday with a hand injury. Trout was hit by a 94 mph fastball from Casey Legumina in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game against the Mariners. He was immediately removed from the contest.
Trout singled and scored in his return to the lineup. He was on base for Jorge Soler‘s two-run blast in the first inning. Those wouldn’t be the last fireworks from Soler that evening. Trout’s base hit had an exit velocity above 100 mph, so he would seem to be back to full strength.
The 34-year-old Trout’s production has cooled considerably after a huge opening series. The veteran slugged home runs in the first two games of the campaign. Trout racked up six hits and seven walks in the four-game set against the Astros. He’s recorded just a pair of hits since then.
We’re still working with tiny sample sizes at this point of the season, and the main development for the Angels is that Trout is healthy and available to contribute in the middle of the lineup. He played 130 games last year, his most since 2019. Trout is now back in his familiar spot in center field after spending most of 2025 at DH.
On the pitching side, right-hander Kirby Yates faced hitters on Tuesday, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The reliever is working his way back from knee inflammation. The 39-year-old was positioned to open the year as the Angels’ closer while Ben Joyce and Robert Stephenson dealt with their own injuries, but Yates hit the IL himself shortly before Opening Day.
The Angels will see how Yates recovers from yesterday’s work and determine the next step in his rehab process, relays Fletcher. He could be headed on a minor league assignment soon. The Angels signed Yates to a one-year, $5MM pact in January. The reliever was the club’s largest spend of the offseason. Los Angeles also added veteran bullpen arms Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz to improve a unit that ranked 28th in ERA last season. Romano has taken over as closer, securing four saves across six scoreless innings.
The Angels’ biggest swing of the offseason was sending outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez. After four MLB Spring Training appearances with his new club, Rodriguez went down with shoulder inflammation. The former top prospect missed all of 2025 with a lat strain. Injuries have limited him to 43 starts since his big-league debut in 2023. Rodriguez is feeling better and is nearing mound work, per Fletcher.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Robert Stephenson Undergoes Season-Ending Elbow Surgery
Angels right-hander Robert Stephenson has undergone elbow surgery and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Manager Kurt Suzuki gave the bad news to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. It was a ligament and flexor repair surgery, per Bollinger.
The Halos took a gamble on Stephenson by signing him to a three-year, $33MM deal ahead of the 2024 season. Unfortunately, that bet has not paid off at all due to Stephenson’s injury woes. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2024 campaign. He returned to the mound by the end of May 2025 but some biceps inflammation put him back on the shelf after just two appearances. He came off the injured list in August and made eight more appearances but finished the season back on the IL due to elbow inflammation.
As of about a month ago, he was throwing and seemed on a path to being healthy in 2026. But about three weeks ago, he suffered a setback and relayed that he had apparently suffered damage to his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor muscle. Yet another surgery means that he’s going to miss a full season for the second time in three years. He’ll have given the Angels just ten innings for their $33MM investment.
The contract does contain a conditional option for 2027. It’s valued at $2.5MM and was to be unlocked if Stephenson spent 130 consecutive days on the IL at any point due to an elbow ligament injury. That option was therefore already triggered when Stephenson missed the 2024 campaign. That means there is technically still a chance for the Halos to get some value out of Stephenson but they would have to cough up a bit more money. Given how the past three years have gone, that’s hard to see right now.
At the time of the signing, Stephenson wasn’t really proven but it felt like perhaps he was about to break out. He was once a first-round pick and a top prospect. His major league track record was mixed but it seemed as though the Rays may have unlocked something. He finished 2023 with Tampa and posted a 2.35 earned run average in 38 1/3 innings. He paired a massive 42.9% strikeout rate with a tiny 5.7% walk rate.
The Angels thought there was a potential lights-out closer in there but that didn’t come to fruition as he has been bit hard by the injury bug. He just turned 33 years old and will turn 34 in February of next year. It’s not exactly clear if he underwent full Tommy John surgery or some kind of internal brace alternative. In either case, it seems likely he’ll still be recovering by the time the 2027 season gets underway.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images
Joey Lucchesi Elects Free Agency
Left-hander Joey Lucchesi elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to an announcement from the Angels. He was designated for assignment over the weekend.
Lucchesi was pushed off the roster after Sunday’s scheduled starter, Ryan Johnson, was scratched with a viral infection. The Halos tabbed prospect George Klassen for a spot start. They needed active and 40-man roster space to bring him up, leaving Lucchesi as a tough luck roster casualty.
The 32-year-old southpaw had a very brief stint with the club. He signed a major league contract at the end of Spring Training and made three appearances. Lucchesi allowed five of six hitters to reach in his season debut. He followed up with a pair of scoreless outings but walked at least one batter in all of his appearances. He wound up issuing five free passes (four walks and a hit batter) across 2 1/3 innings.
Lucchesi spent last season with the Giants. He opened the year in Triple-A but was called up in the middle of June. He remained on the active roster for the final three and a half months, turning in a 3.76 ERA over 38 1/3 innings. Lucchesi got grounders at a 53% clip but had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate that led the Giants to drop him from the 40-man roster at season’s end. He returned on a minor league contract for Spring Training and was granted his release when the Giants picked up Ryan Borucki late in camp.
Angels Notes: Johnson, Klassen, Trout
The Angels placed rookie starter Ryan Johnson on the 15-day injured list before tonight’s game. Lefty Mitch Farris is up from Triple-A Salt Lake to take his spot on the active roster. Johnson’s placement, which is retroactive to April 3, is due to a virus.
Johnson surprisingly broke camp as the Halos’ fifth starter. That was due both to his strong Spring Training and the injuries to Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah ahead of him on the depth chart. It continued a bizarre career arc for the 2024 supplemental second-round draft choice. Johnson skipped the minors entirely to break camp last year as a reliever. He looked overmatched, was optioned all the way back to High-A in May, then dominated over 12 starts to finish the season.
The Angels jumped the 23-year-old back up as a starter without any upper minors experience. He had a shaky first MLB start, allowing six runs without getting through the fourth inning against the Cubs. Johnson was scheduled for his second appearance yesterday against the Mariners before the illness intervened.
That led to the first MLB opportunity for well-regarded prospect George Klassen. The Angels selected him as a spot starter in Johnson’s place. Klassen walked five batters and only recorded eight outs in his big league debut. The Halos used four relievers (Ryan Zeferjahn, Brent Suter, Sam Bachman and Shaun Anderson) for multiple frames in an eventual 11th-inning win.
Farris gives them a multi-inning relief option for the next couple days. José Soriano has done his part to give the bullpen a much needed breather, firing eight innings of one-run ball tonight against the Braves. Their pitching plans for the next few days are to be determined beyond knowing that it’ll be Yusei Kikuchi and Reid Detmers to start the final two games of their series with Atlanta. They’re off on Thursday before playing on 14 consecutive days. Manager Kurt Suzuki told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register) that they haven’t decided whether Klassen will make another start.
Meanwhile, Mike Trout was out of the lineup tonight after being hit on the left hand during yesterday’s ballgame. He’s listed as day to day, per the MLB.com injury tracker. Bryce Teodosio got the nod in center field tonight against Chris Sale. If Trout needs more time, the Angels could turn to lefty-hitting Josh Lowe there with Atlanta starting righties for the next two games. Teodosio would be the other possibility if they’re focused solely on defense.
Angels Designate Joey Lucchesi For Assignment
The Angels announced this afternoon that they’ve designated southpaw Joey Lucchesi for assignment. Right-hander George Klassen has been selected from the minors to replace Lucchesi on the active and 40-man rosters.
Lucchesi, 33 in June, has been in the majors for parts of eight seasons at this point. The veteran southpaw began his career back in 2018 as a starter for the Padres, but after two seasons of solid enough back-of-the-rotation production (97 ERA+, 4.24 FIP) he fell off the map somewhat. He made just three MLB appearances in 2020 and was dealt to the Mets in the three-team Joe Musgrove deal prior to the 2021 season. As a member of the Mets, Lucchesi was used as an optionable starter who spent much of his time in the minors. He spent four years in the organization (including a 2022 campaign lost to Tommy John surgery) and in that time continued to pitch at a more or less league average level in spot starts, with a 3.79 ERA and 4.02 FIP across 95 1/3 innings of work when in the majors.
After electing free agency prior to the 2025 season, Lucchesi signed on with the Giants as a non-roster invite to Spring Training. He didn’t initially make the team but made his way to the majors around midseason, and upon arriving pitched mostly in short-inning relief for San Francisco. He posted a 3.76 ERA with a 3.97 FIP across 38 1/3 innings of work for the club in 2025 but struggled late in the year and found himself non-tendered back in November. After initially re-signing with the Giants, he was released after failing to make the club out of Spring Training and landed a big league deal with the Angels. Unfortunately for the lefty, his stint in Anaheim lasted just three appearances. He struggled to a 7.71 ERA in 2 1/3 innings of work before being let go by the Angels. They’ll now have one week to try and work out a trade for him or pass him through waivers. If he makes it through waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency and return to the open market.
As for Klassen, the righty was acquired by the Angels in the Carlos Estevez trade with the Phillies back in 2024. Klassen spent his first full season in the Angels organization mostly at the Double-A level with lackluster results, including a 5.35 ERA in 24 starts. He’s made two starts at the Triple-A level between last season and this year, however, and in those outings he’s looked quite good with a 28.9% strikeout rate and just three earned runs allowed in 10 2/3 innings of work. That was enough for an Angels organization that has long been aggressive with prospect promotions to give the righty a look in the majors, and he’ll get his first look in the big leagues today with a start against the Mariners. For now, Klassen’s role appears to be that of a spot starter, but if he performs it would be easy to imagine the Angels finding a way to make room for him in their rotation mix.
AL West Notes: Donovan, Joyce, Crawford
Mariners utilityman Brendan Donovan left last night’s game with an apparent leg injury in the seventh inning. Facing Angels left-hander Reid Detmers, Donovan hit a grounder to second base that he attempted to beat out for an infield hit. He landed awkwardly on the bag with his left leg, and he was replaced by Leo Rivas on defense in the bottom half of the inning. Donovan has soreness in his groin region, per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. Divish added in a separate post that imaging came back clean.
Donovan has gotten off to a hot start in 2026, batting .370/.485/.667 across his first 33 plate appearances. Defensively, he has played all eight of his games at third base, though he’ll inevitably spend time around the diamond as the season goes on. The club recently signed infield prospect Colt Emerson to a record extension, and they will reportedly play him at third base when he gets called up. That said, the club immediately optioned him after signing the deal, so he can get more seasoning in the upper minors. A short-term Donovan absence wouldn’t change that plan, leaving Rivas as the likeliest candidate to fill in if needed.
A few other updates from around the division:
- Emerson’s extension happens to align with the end of shortstop J.P. Crawford‘s contract. The veteran is in the final year of the five-year, $51MM extension he inked in 2022. Crawford missed the first week of the season with a shoulder injury. Seattle did not opt to give Emerson the role while Crawford was sidelined, but he appears to be the heir apparent at the position. The incumbent is taking it in stride, though. “I congratulated him, wishing him nothing but the best,” Crawford told Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. “And he’s going to come up here and help us win ballgames. And that’s what we want at the end of the day, is to go win the World Series — and he will for sure help us do that. So I can’t wait to get him up here.” Crawford seemed to acknowledge his impending departure, calling 2026 the biggest year of his career.”I have the chance to make some money if I play well, and we’ll see what happens after that.”
- Angels reliever Ben Joyce is currently on the mend from May 2025 shoulder surgery, and Jack Janes of The Sporting Tribune reports that Joyce is throwing normal bullpen sessions without issue. However, it is unknown when he will start facing live hitters. Joyce is well known for his triple-digit fastball velocity, but his impact in the majors has been limited by injuries. The 2022 third-round draft pick has thrown 49 big-league innings from 2023-25 with a 3.12 ERA, a 21.0% strikeout rate, and an 11.4% walk rate. He had a 2.08 ERA and a massive 58.9% groundball rate in 2024, but he was less impressive in limited samples in the other two years. Joyce is expected back relatively early in the season, though he’ll need a rehab assignment after such a long layoff.
- Astros reliever Enyel De Los Santos is nearing a big-league return. The right-hander made consecutive Double-A appearances on Thursday and Friday. Manager Joe Espada called De Los Santos “close” to rejoining the Astros, relayed by Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. As Kawahara notes, getting De Los Santos back in the mix could create a difficult roster decision for Houston. Cody Bolton and Roddery Munoz are out of options. Bryan King, Ryan Weiss, Kai-Wei Teng, Steven Okert, and AJ Blubaugh are off to solid starts. Bryan Abreu obviously isn’t going anywhere. De Los Santos himself is out of options. The Astros also plan to go with a six-man rotation soon, which would trim down another reliever. That tweak could be Weiss moving into the rotation.
Photo courtesy of Arianna Grainey, Imagn Images
Braves Acquire Víctor Mederos
The Angels have traded right-hander Víctor Mederos to the Braves in exchange for international bonus pool space, according to announcements from both clubs. The righty was designated for assignment a few days ago when the Angels added Shaun Anderson to their roster. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR says the pool space changing hands is $250K. By rule, pool space can only be traded in $250K increments. Atlanta transferred righty AJ Smith-Shawver to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Mederos was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett.
Mederos, 25 in June, has a small and unimpressive major league track record to this point. He has tossed 25 1/3 innings over the previous three seasons with an 8.53 earned run average. Atlanta is presumably more interested in his minor league work. Last year, he made 16 starts at the Triple-A level, posting a 3.39 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He got some help from a 78.4% strand rate and only struck out 18.6% of batters faced but he features mid-90s velocity and a five-pitch mix.
The Halos nudged him off the roster but found enough interest on the trade block to net some international pool space in return. Atlanta gave up that pool space because they could use some extra pitching depth. In the past few weeks, they have lost Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, Joey Wentz and Spencer Strider to injuries.
They currently have a rotation featuring Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Martín Pérez. Sale has a lengthy injury history and is now 37 years old. López only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes was diagnosed with a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament last year and is healthy now but it wouldn’t be a shock for that injury to flare up again. Elder had a 5.30 ERA last year. Pérez is a soft-tossing veteran.
Atlanta does have Didier Fuentes and JR Ritchie in Triple-A but those two are fairly lacking in experience. Ritchie still hasn’t cracked the majors. Fuentes has made it to the show but has allowed 21 earned runs in 17 innings. Mederos will give them some extra Triple-A depth and could be called up to the big leagues at some point, if needed.
As for Smith-Shawver, his transfer to the 60-day IL was inevitable. He underwent Tommy John surgery in June of last year. He could return at some point in 2026 but presumably not until after the All-Star break.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images