The Angels have claimed left-hander Christian Friedrich off waivers from the Rockies and designated infielder Taylor Featherston for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (on Twitter).
Friedrich, 28, was selected 25th overall out of Eastern Kentucky University back in 2008, but he’s struggled for much of his pro career, amassing an ERA north of 5.00 at both the Triple-A level and in the Major Leagues. This past season, Friedrich posted a 5.25 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate in 58 1/3 innings of work. While Friedrich has struggled throughout his career, he’s held left-handed hitters in check fairly well, limiting same-handed opponents to a .257/.314/.364 batting line. He’s also posted considerably better numbers away from Coors, where he has a 4.61 ERA as compared to a 6.96 mark at home. Because he’s out of options, Freidrich will have to make the Halos’ Opening Day roster — presumably in the bullpen — or again be exposed to waivers.
The DFA of Featherston is a somewhat surprising revelation, if only because the Angels carried the 2014 Rule 5 Draft pick on their Major League roster for the entirety of the 2015 season rather than expose him to waivers and offer him back to his original team. Featherston, in fact, received just 169 plate appearances and batted .162/.212/.247. While he’s a gifted defender, the decision to dedicate a roster spot to him over the course of 162 games only to cut him loose in the offseason figures to irk some Angels fans, especially considering the fact that the club missed a Wild Card playoff berth by a lone game in the standings. Then again, with some turnover in the team’s front office, it certainly seems possible that the new faces atop the baseball operations hierarchy simply didn’t few Featherston as highly as their predecessors.
Featherston will get claimed and that bums me out. Steve Adams is right that it will irk some Angels fans. Bad offensive slash line but dude’s got a solid glove. I will miss seeing him in the infield for the later innings.
He also tried to kill cano
Oh yeah! Dang. That must’ve really sucked getting hit square in the noggin like that.
He almost killed cano
Great Angels. Fantastic.
Good glove but no bat
I don’t care one bit about Taylor Featherston. What I do care about is the fact that this left hander seems to have very good numbers in rival NL West ballparks. This is something I dug up on Charlie Blackmon as well. The overall road numbers away from Coors are not all that intriguing. But the numbers at the ballparks of his division rivals look a lot better. I trust those numbers over random 3 game samples somewhere in the NL East. This could be a sleeper pick up. Not exactly an elite set up man, but serviceable enough to tap into if and when the club needs to.
I mean, yeah his stats are better on the road… but his career ERA away from Coors 4.61. I’m actually more concerned about his WHIP which is just about 1.50.
There’s no way to get around the fact that this Friedrich guy is probably garbage. Unless he kills it in spring, I don’t want him anywhere near the MLB roster.
I didn’t particularly care about Featherston, but we when kept him on the 25 man roster all year last year, despite his inability to hit AT ALL, just so that he could be demoted to Salt Lake this year, it does sting that Friedrich is the guy that bounces him. If it had been someone with a little more promise, I’d be less bitter about it. Hope I eat my words.
I’m not as sold on his glove as some. He booted what seemed to be a lot of balls when he did play. I totally get that the new regime probably values him less.
Indians should claim Featherston, Jose Ramirez needs competition this spring.
Angels fans need to chill. They aren’t dumping Featherston. He’ll probably pass through waivers (almost nobody has any roster space right now) and be sent down to AAA.
I agree, and either way do we really need him, think about it we have Simmons so he will never play shortstop and we added cliff Pennington, who isn’t quite the fielder Featherston is but is good enough and can actually hit over
.200
Unrelated comment to post, but Loney and possibly Jennings for Shoemaker and morin?
Jennings takes over lf Loney fills in for Pujols and provides lefty bat for first of season. Maybe trade add cron for another piece to give Loney a full spot.
Why would any team be interested in acquiring James Loney? He’s just not very good at all.
I like the idea of using Loney while Pujols is out, but his salary is just too high at 7m, and then if we were to trade him we would probably get nothing in return and still have to pay most of his salary
Featherston will get claimed. There’s no reason for teams in need of IF depth to not claim him. He has options left. Doesn’t make sense unless there’s a trade in the works. He finally was going to get the chance to find his bat in the minors and now he’s DFAd. Something is happening. Hopefully a MLB trade.
people seem to forget Featherstone’s situation. He was not ready for the majors i with the bat. That’s the only reason that were able to get someone like him. He has some hr power and stole a few bases. but this was not the high minors. he looked over matched to start but looked much better at the end of the year when he returned from that injury. he has a chance to develop into a pretty good infielder. also he is cheap and has options left.
featherston had no experience other than low minors .he showed some power as well as stole some bases. he was over matched with the bat until the end of the year when he returned from that injury. he plays good defense has multiple options is cheap and can play good at 2b and 3rd as well. it was a solid pickup last year. makes no sense to me.
nothing is posting.