The Angels have claimed pitchers Blake Parker and Kirby Yates from the Yankees, according to an announcement from New York. In a corresponding move, the Halos designated outfielder Nick Buss and righty A.J. Achter.
Parker and Yates both provide the Angels with bullpen options heading into 2017, at least assuming they hold onto their 40-man positions over the months to come. The former threw 17 1/3 major league innings last year, posting a 4.67 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9. He was much better, however, during his time at Triple-A, which came with the Mariners organization.
As for Yates, he’ll look to bounce back after coughing up 5.23 earned runs per nine in his 41 1/3 innings with the Yanks. Actually, though, his peripherals were rather promising. He logged 10.9 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9 while carrying a career-high 11.6% swinging strike rate and topping 93 mph with his average fastball for the first time.
Moving off of the Halos’ big league roster are Buss and Achter. The former cracked the majors briefly last year, struggling badly in 90 plate appearances. In his 372 Triple-A plate appearances, Buss posted a .290/.345/.462 batting line with six home runs.
The 28-year-old Achter threw a superficially productive 37 2/3 major league innings, with a 3.11 ERA, but things didn’t look great under the hood. He managed only 14 strikeouts against 12 walks while permitting 43 hits. Perhaps only sequencing luck — he carried a 93.1% strand rate — got in the way of much greater damage.
The Yankees also announced that righty Anthony Swarzak elected free agency rather than taking an outright assignment. He tossed 31 innings for the Yankees after a solid showing at Triple-A, but the results didn’t match up to his peripherals. Swarzak ended the year with a 5.52 ERA, owing largely to a sky-high 2.90 homers per nine. But he did compile 9.0 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 with a 46.4% groundball rate — leading to a 3.21 SIERA and 3.86 xFIP.
Eppler is familiar with the system. Assume he sees something in these two
Ha. Both were acquired by NY after Eppler was hired in LA.
Good to know. Guess that’s what happens when I assume huh
Why did the Yankees cut Yates? He was a standard pitcher for them this year..
They didn’t “cut” him, just left him on waivers – and he isn’t the kind of guy you want to hold off on doing that to.
He wasn’t bad though, agreed. But Yankees have plenty other options both in-house and on FA/trade market they’d rather dedicate that roster spot to.
Yankees have a lot of decent prospects that are Rule 5 eligible this year, so need to cuz below average expendable veterans (Parker, Yates, Swarzak, Young; eventually probably Solano) to make room
Angels are wheelin
…..but not really dealin.
Yikes, as the Angels minor league pitching must be pretty bad.
These two are obviously better than what they have.
Eppler is familiar with the Yankees system and is pretty dedicated to upgrading the Angels system.
Both these arms were acquired by NY after Eppler left for the LA gig.
Pretty much. Eppler has been claiming relievers left and right hoping to hit that right combination, and he actually found it in Deolis Guerra, JC Ramirez, and Andrew Bailey. They held the fort down after the Angels’ 11 game losing streak, and the team finished 25-18 after that. Mainly because that combo was able to shut it down in late innings. Regardless of the Angels’ starting pitching problems, their bullpen blew a lot of leads late over the course of the season, and that combo I mentioned stopped the bleeding. A bit too late unfortunately. But yeah, that’s where the Angels pitching depth is. But it also goes to show that you can find bullpen assets on the waiver wire just as much as you can in a deep minor league system. There’s no more of a guarantee in either case.
I get the feeling the depth-strapped Angels are going to be claiming every pitcher with a pulse this offseason.
They can claim as many as they want but they need to have a open 40 man spot and then need to keep them on the 40 man or they lose them. Once a better pitcher comes available one of them will be returned to the Yankee’s if not both.
They’re not automatically returned to the Yankees. They are just exposed to waivers, and since they have already been exposed to waivers by NY once why would they reclaim them??
Yankees middle relief was dreadful. These guys are just cannon fodder. And the Yankees need 40 man roster spots. And the Angels are terrible. They’ll be doing a lot of this – picking up scraps and hoping.
Just a sign of things to come as the Yankees need more open roster spots to protect a handful of their Rule 5 draft eligible minor players.
Parker could seriously stick as a reliable relief arm for the Angels– aside from one appearance where he allowed 4 runs over 0.1 IP, he posted a 2.81 ERA. He’s relatively stable and stability is what the Angels need right now. Yates has really high upside. He can throw around 98 with great strikeout stuff. Don’t look at his crap ERA, look at his absolutely out of this world Minor League 1.62 ERA 2.15 FIP and 10.3 K/9 and his Major League 3.97 FIP and 10.89 K/9. He could be 2013 Dane De La Rosa (30 year old reliever who breaks out) for the Angels. He doesn’t bring the stability that Parker does, but the upside is there. While both guys could very well be back on the wire by weeks end, their numbers support a potential “break-out” of sorts in 2017. I think if given the opportunity, they will be solid,
Achter is another guy I actually like– Listen, FIP is a great tool, but when a guy has posted a career 3.97 ERA and maintained it– give him some credit– don’t crap on him because he doesn’t strike guys out. He posted a 3.11 ERA over 37 innings!!! For the Waiver Wire, that’s obscene!! I hope he draws a claim- he could help a bullpen somewhere.
Don’t like either Buss or Swarzak– Buss is a typical AAAA outfielder in his early 30’s who doesn’t have any standout tools and doesn’t have much value in the major leagues. Swarzak is a dime a dozen reliever who has had one good year (2013) and is still getting opportunities because of that fact.
Jefff,
“But he did compile 9.0 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 with a 46.4% groundball rate — leading to a 3.21 SIERA and 3.86 xFIP.”
Yes, but everything else other than all those balls in play at a 46.4% ground ball rate went out of the park or into the gap hard and fast.
He was unreliable in most situations he was asked to work in. Glad he sees greener pastures somewhere else other than Yankee Stadium.
Yeah, I mentioned the dingers. It’s always hard to interpret these kinds of numbers – was he unlucky on balls in play or were the peripherals a bit fluky?