The Angels have struck a one-year, $5.75MM deal with righty Jesse Chavez, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link). He’ll also have a chance to earn up to $2.5MM in incentives. It’s an escalating scale based on the number of games started, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
Los Angeles added Chavez with intentions of utilizing him as a starter, Crasnick notes. He’ll join an increasingly crowded group of rotation candidates, though several will enter the year with a variety of questions.
Halos GM Billy Eppler recently noted that he’d be in the hunt for another starting candidate to go with a group led by Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, Tyler Skaggs, and Ricky Nolasco. While the club also intends to try J.C. Ramirez as a starter, and could also hand the ball to Alex Meyer or a few other internal options, there was enough uncertainty to warrant an addition.
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In particular, Richards and Skaggs carry notable ongoing injury question marks. There was at least some reason to believe that the Angels might target a more significant addition — MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes suggested them as a landing spot for Ivan Nova — but it seems that the club will instead stake a less-committing bet on Chavez. His addition likely takes the team out of the market for Nova and others, including departing free agent Jered Weaver.
The 33-year-old Chavez isn’t a particularly exciting addition, and didn’t even make a single start in 2016, but he’s a solid pitcher who’ll help shore up the staff — and could always move to the pen if things break right with other pitchers. With the Blue Jays and Dodgers last year, he threw 67 total innings with 8.5 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 to go with a 42.9% groundball rate.
Those measures are all fairly typical for Chavez, who was a bit more susceptible to the long ball last year (15.4% HR/FB, 1.61 HR/9) but otherwise largely repeated his prior seasons. Of course, he had been utilized primarily as a starter in the two preceding campaigns with the Athletics. Over 2013-14, he compiled a 3.59 ERA in 203 1/3 innings, though ERA estimators suggested he was more of an upper-3.00 range pitcher.
When working exclusively from the pen, Chavez managed to increase his average fastball velocity to 92.7 mph, a level he hadn’t reached in several years. But he’s not reliant on a big heater anyway; Chavez utilizes three varieties of the fastball (four-seam, two-seam, cutter) as well a change and two relatively little-used breaking pitches.
Chavez is one of several early-offseason acquisitions for the Halos, none of which have come with lengthy commitments. Los Angeles already re-signed Andrew Bailey to its pen and dealt for Cameron Maybin to fill an outfield spot. Various opportunistic moves can’t be ruled out, but it seems that the remaining priority at this point is to find a regular second baseman.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I always would cringe when Roberts would bring this guy in.
dear lord
All I can say is thank you to the Angels for making sure the Dodgers did not bring Chavez back.
Good signing. He was one of the guys I thought would be a good fit with the Angels. Decent price too
Good Price>>>>>are you kidding us????
This guys a bum and not worth major league min., let alone 5Million plus!
Billy Eppler got fleeced.
Terrible move. Not sure why they signed him for this much money
This is by far the worst eppler move and he hasn’t made many bad moves but I feel this one will be terrible
It’s 2016. $5 million isn’t what it used to be. The short term deal allows them to flip him for prospects if he’s not in it. Same with Bailey. This is a smart move. He’ll be fine.
*if they’re not in it
I get it but I would have spent a little more money on somebody more proven
I would rather roll the dice on the in house options
this move is terrible? it’s a one year deal for 5 million.stop
I guess you haven’t seen him pitch ?
Solid peripherals consistently strong xFIP. 5.75 MIL is not a lot for a starter.
Great signing at a reasonable price. His floor is 6th SP/long reliever on many teams, his ceiling was and probably still is mid/back end innings eater. He’s the kind of guy you take this gamble on.
The 1 year deal also makes him a deadline candidate if the Angels aren’t in it, which is a solid way to help build the farm, which they need to do.
For that kind of money, it seems like the 42yo Dickey would have been a better bet at 8m guaranteed and a much better track record.
Right on man…..a bag of balls would have been too much for this guy!
How so? Dickey has performed worse than Chavez over the past two years and is almost 10 years older. I’d much rather have Chavez especially with his ability to fill multiple roles
believe me, from a Jays fan who has seen both pitch, Dickey is by far way more valuable to any team. least hes good for 200 innings. Chavez is totally run of the mill type guy; nothing special
Great signing at a reasonable price???? Really, how much to you make a year and would your employer pay you anything near this for mediocrity?
This guys a bum!
I’m sorry he pitched poorly in the game you paid money to go see him play in. You feel he hurt your wallet by getting shelled and making the game no fun for you or your family I hear ya, buddy.
You are kidding yourself. Chavez’s “floor” is much lower than you seem to realize. It sounds like you didn’t watch him with the Dodgers at all. Mark my words, your tune will change significantly after Chavez starts pitching for the Angels.
Yes, because teams are going to line up in giving up the farm for Jesse Chavez. If he’s traded, it would be for organizational fodder. Just finding another team to take his salary.
Like we saw last year when we had 8 pitchers going Into spring, can never have enough pitching
Exactly right.
And I think the speculation by the MLBTR writer that the Angels are therefore out on any other starter is going to prove to be very wrong before spring.
Eppler clearly likes the idea of spring competition for rotation spots.
This guy is cooked lol
Don’t the Angels know that this guy sucks? I’m confused.
I’m really confused by this move as well
Chavez isn’t terrible. He is a decent swingman option for a pitching-starved team. More money than I thought he would get. It’s only one year.
The nice thing about a guy like Chavez is he can bounce back and forth from middle relief to starting throughout the year and tends to be durable. But yeah, he’s not going to pitch his way into the All-Star team.
I’ll pray for you LA
Approx. $40 mil off the books this year from the Weaver/Wilson contracts. Of that $40mil you spend $15mil of it on Cameron Maybin and Jesse Chavez. Sigh, looks like the Dodgers will be the LA team to watch again next season.
That 40 MIL off the books was accompanied by increases in salary for Trout and Pujols in addition to arbitration raises to guys like Richards, Calhoun and Shoemaker. Realistically, the Angels only had about 20 Mil to spend if they want payroll to remain in line with last year.
Payroll is calculated by average annual value, so raises to Trout and Pujols don’t count. Only their AAV. Right now they’re at about $163 million under the current CBA, which means they have $26 million left before hitting the luxury tax again. And the CBA expires soon and we could see the tax go up. And if that happens, the Angels will have even more to spend. I’ve heard of it going up to about $210 million…
Spend on who though? You going to give Joey Bats 20mil per? Or Ian Desmond? Chapman won’t play for the Angels when he can stay with the Cubs or go back to NY. Jansen is going to want to play for a playoff team..
Wow, so that’s it? You’re declaring the Angels done shopping on November 11? I guess in the universe you live in, pitchers and catchers report tomorrow?
“Sigh, looks like the Dodgers will be the LA team to watch again next season.”
I hate to break it to you, but the Dodgers are going to be the LA team to watch again for several seasons in the future and those two moves aren’t exactly the sole reason…
Yes the team watch (well if you have certain cable channel) and watch them with their 279 mil payroll most in history
Still come up short from making a WS appearance even the Yankees who over spent had something to show for it
Angels for life!!
Good price? OH PLEASE!!!! What’s wrong with these kakabrainiac morons!!!!
Wow so glad he’s not a dodger
At this price I would have preferred to resign Weaver. This guy is no better than anyone we had on the roster already e.g. Rasmus
I agree. Would rather get weaver and chacin although there is still time to get at least one. I would rather have chacin as the swing man.
Um, you watched Weaver pitch last year, right? That guy is cooked. I would be quite surprised to see him on a major league roster in 2017.
If we don’t sign weaver, I would like to see him play on the pirates. I think Ray Serage can fix him
Yeah I did I guarantee Chavez doesn’t pitch as many quality starts that weaver did last year. Weaver has been loyal to the Angels I would rather pay to see him pitch than Chavez
Good player to have but the price is high. Would have liked to see him sign for 2/3M.
Man, angels need to sell and rebuild at this point.
Sell what? Who’s going to trade for Pujols? Shoemaker and Richards are at a low point in value. Escobar won’t net too much. That leaves Bedrosian, Simmons, Trout and Calhoun. Trout is the type of player that can never net enough in a trade. He’s irreplaceable.
OMG!! Has the ghost of Xmas past come back to haunt Angel fans! Are the days of El Cheapo Frank McQuart now haunting the Angels! I don’t get it! How can we trade for Maybin ($9Million)
Ok dodger fans u guy act like this guy cost u a playoff game . One there not much out there so that y the angels pick him up his era is good in angel Stadium he just a fill in angels fans a”s fan know he pitch well in angels stadium he is from Anaheim Iam really surprised that they havent sign Parker to a minor league deal .like I said before there is no one out there but c pitcher they need to get a Second baseman Neil Walker and a catcher Matt Wieters then we can start talk about pitching