Angels Outright Johnny Giavotella To Triple-A

The Angels have outrighted second baseman Johnny Giavotella to Triple-A, the club announced.  Giavotella cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

After being acquired from Kansas City in a December 2014 trade, Giavotella has spent much of the last two seasons as the Angels’ starter at the keystone.  He didn’t provide much offensively (.267/.305/.375 over 869 plate appearances) or defensively (the UZR/150 and Defensive Runs Saved metrics indicate below-average glovework over the last two years) and Giavotella had recently lost playing time to Gregorio Petit and Cliff Pennington.  Second base certainly appears to be one of many areas of need for the Halos this winter as they look to recover from a thoroughly disappointing 2016 campaign.

As Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times tweets, the Angels will use Giavotella as a utilityman at Triple-A.  Giavotella has some experience at third base and left field in the minors, though he has only appeared at a position other than second once at the Major League level (a single game at shortstop).  Gaining some multi-position versatility could be helpful for Giavotella’s career prospects, given his lack of success against MLB pitching.  Giavotella will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter and is a potential non-tender candidate, though he doesn’t figure to be in line for a very big salary in his initial trip through the arb process.