The Mets announced that they have acquired right-handed reliever Fernando Salas from the Angels in exchange for minor league right-hander Erik Manoah. Justin Ruggiano has been moved to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Salas on the 40-man roster.
Salas, 31, has pitched to a 4.47 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 41.6 percent ground-ball rate in 56 1/3 innings of relief for the Angels this season. A free agent at season’s end, he represents a pure rental for the Mets, but a fairly affordable one, as he’s earning $2.4MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility. Salas has $419K of that sum remaining on his salary through season’s end. While his numbers certainly aren’t eye-catching, it’s worth noting that Salas has largely righted the ship after a dreadful month of June and has pitched quite well since early July. While the endpoint here is highly arbitrary in nature, Salas has a 2.60 ERA with an 18-to-7 K/BB ratio and a 48 percent ground-ball rate in his past 17 1/3 innings out of manager Mike Scisoscia’s bullpen.
With the Mets, Salas figures to work primarily in the seventh inning, as the eighth inning is typically the property of resurgent setup man Addison Reed, while the Mets boast one of baseball’s best closers in the form of right-hander Jeurys Familia. By acquiring Salas tonight, the Mets have ensured that he can be a part of the club’s roster in the event that they make it to the postseason. The deadline for newly acquired players to receive postseason eligibility is midnight EST.
Manoah, 20, was the Mets’ 13th-round pick in the 2014 draft. The Miami-area prep product hasn’t performed particularly well in his pro career to date, pitching to an ERA north of 5.00 in both 2015 and 2016. However, he has shown a penchant for missing bats, racking up 63 strikeouts in 62 innings out of the rotation for the Mets’ short-season Class-A affiliate this year, and he also keeps the ball on the ground quite well, as evidenced by a 50 percent ground-ball rate.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
If Escobar wasn’t on DL could got him to play 2B.
Hopefully more Trades before midnight.
The Angels are not shopping Escobar.
Really would’ve like Jeanmar Gomez more, but this is an upgrade.
Price was likely too high, especially with it being that it’s an in-division trade.
I was starting to fear, that the Angels would resign him
They still might! He’ll be a free agent at the end of the year!
Please god no!
I hope to god that they don’t
I was gonna comment on the amount of inherited runners scored but the number is surprisingly low this year.
Okay, and? Next!
The kakabrainiacs keep on trading decent players for nobodies …
I’m pleasantly surprised that Salas’ hot streak netted us anything at all. Good move.
Angelsfan69 you keep calling the Angels front office Kakabrainiacs yet the Angels are trading players who they don’t plane on resigning, and getting young pitchers for them. Let me guess, you think the Angels are loaded with talent and Scioscia is the problem? How is Seattle doing? How is all the trades and signings Jerry Dipsnot has helped them this year? Dipsnot traded Trumbo not once but twice, and all he is doing is leading the majors in homers.
I was at the Cyclones game the other night and Manoah came in to relieve Justin Dunn and he pitched 4 innings and allowed 3 runs with a lot of walks and wild pitches so I wasn’t impressed. Salas while he hasn’t been sparkling this year should fill the need for a reliever for the Mets
Nice trade by the Mets. Salas has shown some ability as of late and having another arm available for the 7th could be helpful. Giving up Manoah was very fair. The kid has shown some ability, but he isn’t consistent and still quite young. He is basically filler depth at the lower levels unless he can pull it together. That said, LAA isn’t going anywhere, so having a chance at getting ANY value down the road trumps having salas pitch another 15-20 innings and walk.