The Angels are among many teams that have been in talks with the Rays regarding right-hander Jake Odorizzi, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Odorizzi would be the second noteworthy offseason addition to an Angels staff that welcomed potential ace Shohei Ohtani back in December. He’d also offer the Angels a more proven option than just about all of their current starters, with the exception of Garrett Richards and arguably Matt Shoemaker. Although the 27-year-old Odorizzi is coming off a disappointing, injury-shortened season, he has fared respectability in his career – 705 1/3 innings of 3.83 ERA/4.23 FIP ball – and comes with two years of affordable arbitration control. Odorizzi will head to an arb hearing Monday to determine whether he’ll make $6.05MM or $6.35MM in 2018, Topkin notes.
More from around the game…
- Indians righty Trevor Bauer had his own arbitration hearing this past Thursday, per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com. Results should come out this weekend, Hoynes hears. Bauer, who’s in his second of four possible arb years, filed for $6.52MM – a healthy amount more than the $5.3MM the team offered.
- Four minor leaguers – Rays catcher Nick Ciuffo, Padres right-hander Alex Cunningham, Phillies righty Steve Geltz and Pirates second baseman Mitchell Tolman – received suspensions for drug use on Saturday (via Bob Nightengale of USA Today, on Twitter). The harshest punishment went to Geltz, who will serve a 100-game ban without pay after testing positive for a drug of abuse for the third time in his career. The 30-year-old, who signed a minor league deal with the Phillies last month, previously sat 50 games in 2014 after testing positive for marijuana. Meanwhile, Ciuffo, Cunningham and Tolman each got 50-game suspensions. Ciuffo and Tolman tested positive for a drug of abuse for the second time, while Cunningham tested positive for an amphetamine. The most notable member of that trio is the 22-year-old Ciuffo, whom the Rays selected in the first round of the 2013 draft and who currently sits 27th on MLB.com’s ranking of the team’s top 30 prospects. Ciuffo, who got an invitation to big league camp prior to the suspension, took to Twitter on Saturday to apologize.
- Former major league catcher Michael McKenry retired from baseball earlier this month, Erik Bacharach of the Daily News Journal relays. The 32-year-old McKenry told Bacharach he “had a lot of opportunities to play,” but he’ll instead work as Middle Tennessee State University’s director of player development and, according to Adam Berry of MLB.com, serve as a Pirates broadcaster. McKenry played with the Pirates from 2011-13 and was particularly effective in ’12, when he hit .233/.320/.442 with 1.7 fWAR in 275 plate appearances. He also saw major league action with the Rockies, who selected him in Round 7 of the 2006 draft, and Cardinals. McKenry concluded his playing career last season as a member of Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate, with which he racked up 272 PAs and batted .209/.338/.324.
Odorizzi to the angels would be a solid pick up, He’s not an ace but he can be a solid starter for them to eat innings.
Agreed
but the angels don’t have the farm system to bring him in do they?
Yeah everyone does, they wouldn’t even have to give up their top 3 prospects
Marsh + smaller piece would do it imo
Jahmai Jones for odorizzi straight up
If that were the case he’d be traded already. I’m not sure you’ve been paying attention the last few years, but starters fetch a lot of money(even mediocre ones) and therefore they are valued in the current market pretty high.
They actually do now but I doubt he’ll cost very much.
I dont think they would deal J Jones. I do think something centered around Marsh/Barria/Thaiss could get a deal done
Meyers will be out all of 2018, possibly half of 2019 as well, shoulder surgery takes longer than a TJ
Jones as of now has nowhere to play in the outfield, unless we get rid of Calhoun, that’s why I chose jones as the most logical piece to be traded for salute
He also just finished his age 19 season in A ball. He’s not breathing down anyone’s neck to make the jump to the show. With his tools, age, and time to develop/increase value, feels a liittttle too early to flip Jones.
He could very well develop into Trout’s replacement. Is now really the time to be planning for later?
The Angels top prospect would be someone else’s 10-20 . Yeah…they’d have to give up some top prospects.
You clearly don’t know much about the Angels farm system. They have 4 prospects in the top 100. 5 in the top 110 overall. They have the number 2 over all prospect in Ohtani. You do realize they have top 15-20 farm system now according to different rankings. They have come a long way from dead last.
Can’t see the Rays trading for any pitcher requiring a 40 man spot (unless a future part of the rotation). Rays are overflowing with pitching talent right now. Barria wouldn’t be in the starting discussion for the Rays. Thaiss has little value to the Rays either, which already has plenty of lefty first basemen in the system, including Bauers who will be called up this year. Adell, Jones and Marsh would be of interest to the Rays.
You’re going to call Ohtani a prospect? Really?
I pull for the Angels as well, but let’s be realistic.
Jake Odorizzi for C.J. Cron. Currently, Brad Miller is projected as the Rays’ first baseman. They could use the upgrade. Perhaps at the end of the season Cron can platoon with Jake Bauers.
Actually, Cron-for-Odorizzi is about right in terms of comparable value, though I doubt the Rays would value Cron that highly.
Some rankings will call him a prospect, some won’t. It isn’t the most ridiculous thing you’ll read here to see Ohtani called a prospect.
Padam you need to familiarize yourself with the angels farm system. Keith law, prospect guru, ranked them 17… and he doesn’t count ohtani as a prospect. Get with the new times
This guy is clueless.
I absolutely agree with you. Because he has t played a singe game at the MLB level he qualifies as a prospect. He also signed a minor league deal. I have been watching MLB Now and Hot Stove 24/7 getting hyped for the season and he has been on nearly every top prospect list and called a prospect by every analyst on MLB network. I get why people will not consider him one, clearly he will be playing g at the major league level this year and he was a large FA acquisition, but what will he be has still yet to be proven therefore he is a prospect. I’m sitting right next to my father in law, the Assistant GM for KC and son of the beloved Angels Ex shortstop and Manager Jim Fregosi. He says although some think it’s ridiculous to call him a top prospect based on the money spent to acquire him, paying out his Japanese team and the contract he signed, he is called a prospect by many baseball circles and fits the label based on the pure definition. So no you’re not outlandish. It’s one of the main reasons we jumped from worst farm systems to top 20.
You guys are aware that Cron is already a Ray, right? If you are a fan of either team, and not a troller, you would know this.
Take a moment and look how old this story is—it was posted nearly 4 months ago, when Cron was still with the Angels.
We got 8 starters who can eat innings. That’s not including the injured Alex Meyer who should be back mid season, and prospect Jaime Barria. I think we got enough guys who can eat innings. Plus, why trade top prospects (which is what it will take) to get an inning eater? I’d like to see Hector Santiago and Chris Tillman for cheap deals to “eat innings.”
I wish they never got rid of Santiago , I liked him because he balanced out the rotation by having a left handed arm. I wanted them to get Lance Lynn and maybe try to trade for a bullpen arm. Greg Holland would be the final piece to their puzzle imo.
Have you seen Santiago’s numbers since he left the Angels? He outperformed his peripherals the whole time he was with them and it finally caught up to him.
Correct, Ryan. Nolasco outperformed Santiago in the trade. Nolasco got a lot of fan abuse, but he took the ball every 5th day and usually kept his team in the game. For a rotation forced by injury to start Jesse Chavez, Nolasco’s contribution was important.
Top dollar from a reliever is a terrible idea in 2018. Closers are one-trick ponies, and it is financially ruinous to pay them tens of millions to close, then have to bump them down to set-up because they get lit up as closers.
Rest assured that Scott Boras is not going to allow his client to sign another one-year deal, as he did last year with the Rockies (to show Holland was healthy after TJ surgery). This will be 3-4 years at top dollar. Imagine Kimbrel’s $42M/4 as the starting point for negotiations, but adjusted upwardly for salary inflation since some of those years in Kimbrel’s contract were buying out arb seasons–the $13M earned post-arb eligibility will be the basis for Boras’ calculations, I am sure.
This is not an investment the Angels should be making, given the need to keep the team salary below the tax limit so that spending can increase in 2018 offseason.
You can never have enough guys who can eat innings. *Especially* if you are the Angels. Seriously, when was the last time Heaney pitched a full season? Skaggs has been hurt a lot. Richards, shoemaker, tropeano, are hurt a lot. even Ohtani reportedly has a partially torn ucl… Jc Ramirez was shut down last year, they don’t need to give up top prospects for odorizzi. Why let pitching be a potential weakness when you have a generational player and the biggest contract bargain in sports history? They have done a tremendous job building around it adding cozart and kinsler and keeping upton. The angels rotation has more ? Marks than any team in baseball rn.
Heaney was a rookie in 2015. Heaney made 1 start in 2016 and had Tommy John then made it back in 2017.
Such an odd comment: “Richards, Shoemaker, Tropeano are hurt a lot”.
* Richards had the freak injury covering 1B, plus the arm problem, which cost him time but from which he is apparently recovered.
* Shoemaker was hit in the head with a line drive (freak injury), plus had the nerve issue which was apparently successfully repaired through surgery.
* Tropeano made 13 starts in 2016, went out for TJ surgery, and sat out 2017 as the team chose a conservative rehab schedule.
None of this qualifies as “hurt a lot”. Sprains, jammed fingers, frequent blisters–chronic injuries are symptoms of those who are hurt a lot.
You are correct that no top talent needs to be surrendered in trade for Odorizzi. Certainly not Jones, which would be a huge overpay. This is Odorizzi being discussed, not Archer. Odorizzi is an opportunity to buy low on a possible rebound from a regressive 2017. Since there are just two seasons of team control in his future and that poor 2017 in his immediate past, he shouldn’t pry any top prospects from any team.
At best, Odorizzi is a 3-4 pitcher, and the Angels are currently lousy with them (Shoe, Heaney, Skaggs). Odorizzi would enable the team to push Tropeano and Barria to SLC, where they can gain experience away from the big stage, and Ramirez to LH bullpen/long relief roles. Otherwise, there isn’t a compelling reason to do this deal.
Meyer is out for all of 2018 and is likely set for the bullpen for the rest of his career if he can ever make it back to the majors. Also, I feel like Odorizzi offers more than a “innings eater” especially if he can get back to his pre-2017 numbers.
Actually, Alex Meyer was one of the few bright spots in the rotation last year. He posted an fWAR of 1.0, which was sixth among pitchers and third among starters. However, he only pitched 67 1/3 innings. If he didn’t get injured, he could have closed the 0.1 win gap between him and leader J.C. Ramirez. In terms of ERA, Garrett Richards and Parker Bridwell were the only pitchers with lower ones. And Richards pitched less than half of Meyer’s innings. Additionally, in the month of June Meyer posted a 2.25 ERA in six starts. On July 19th at home against the Nationals, Meyer was pitching the game of his career. He allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out seven in seven innings. However, he had to shut it down and will miss all of 2018.
Meyer is going to be out the whole season
The Fort back in the burgh
Great to see The Fort back in Pittsburgh, he was my favorite player during his tenure here. Best of luck on the next step.
Always really like McKenry. Happy to see him back as an announcer.
I’m just wondering. If the angels don’t have that great a rotation (neither do the Mariners), and they haven’t touched their bullpen, and their focus was solely on offense so far, what makes them so much better than the Mariners that people insist they are a WC team but not Seattle?
Having Mike Trout is what distinguishes them from Seattle.
Kinda meaningless statement. Nelson Cruz is what distinguishes the Mariners from the Angels. Trout is a great player but is offense only, and much like Jeter, his offense will keep him in CF well past his ability to play it at a high level. The Angels are getting noticed because they made more impactful moves this offseason. In a offseason with nothing happening, people notice.
Mike Trout is greater than every player on the Mariners. He’s greater than many of said players combined; let alone Nelson DH Cruz.
trout isn’t a great cf?? look at the numbers dude
did you say he is just an offensive player only? He is a 5 tool-player! He got screwed a couple years ago out of a GG. He is way more than just an offensive player! Also maybe Robinson Cano is the only player on the Mariners roster that comes close to what Trout does and means!
Trout is offense only? LoL! Yea! Ok! He’s the best all around 5 tool guy in MLB .
The Angels 2018 rotation will look almost nothing like the patchwork ’17 rotation (it will actually look like the rotation the team had planned on for a couple of seasons, before 4 Tommy John surgeries delayed that.) Provided they can stay reasonably healthy, they have the potential to be good…Also Ohtani will be there.
Fangraphs actually had the ’17 Angels bullpen ranked 5th in the majors. So with that pitching staff and an offense that was Troutless for 40 games the Angels ended 2 games up on the M’s. Add to the pitching mentioned a full season of Trout, a full season of Upton in left, likely one of the better defenses (at the very least the infield)
I think with the moves the Angels have made and the potential of their rotation if they can stay healthy, coupled with the Mariners not doing much of anything at all with their rotation, has given people a sense of a widening gap between the two teams. Apparently the Gordon and Healy acquisitions were not enough to change that perception.
Angels rotation is much brighter than mariners. If it all comes together for ohtani, richards, skaggs and heaney (big if i know) they have a really good rotation
I think the Angels need to sign Lance Lynn I think he fits in with the Angels mix solid starter one that they can count on .The angels always have injuries so I believe they just need to stock up if they want to make a run at it this year.
Somehow I doubt Lance Lynn will sign anywhere he’s just going to be a depth piece
They spent all their $$ on old man cozart… (fart noise)
Is this comment about Cozart intended as satire of clueless fans?
Cozart’s $38M/3 is a bargain, even if his offense in 2017 was a mirage. He provides All-Star-level backup for Simmons in the event of injury, and can transition to 2B after this season if the team secures a new 3B.
Flexibility, versatility, and high-level defensive skills make this a great signing.
In other news, the Phillies are paying Carlos Santana 50 mil for 3 years…and now that people see 6 years of Yu will only cost 126 mil…i think they realize now that the Santana deal is horrible
What if I told you that Santana’s contract is $60MM for 3 years? 😛
Nick Shoe Phone surprises me.
First, Trout is the best player in baseball hands down, Second most teams could come up with a better package for Odorizzi than the Angels, and third Eppler is doing a great job building the Angels.
Odorizzi wouldn’t cost very much, because he’s got limited control, his salary- while fine- isn’t a huge bargain, and he’s coming off an absolutely dreadful year. Every team in baseball could easily trade for him (he’d probably cost a 45 FV prospect and some sort of low-level throw-in), so I don’t think the Angels’ farm, which is actually ok at this point, factors in really
He’ll cost more than that. Last year, 2 years of a more expensive Drew Smyly, coming off of a worse season with injury concerns returned a 50 FV and 2 45 FV prospects.
Don’t feed the trolls
I’m not trolling you, but thanks for your concern
I’m not sure I’d agree that Smyly was coming off a worse season (although the injury concerns are valid). Odorizzi’s FIP was half a run higher than Smyly’s was in 2016, and Smyly had shown a higher ceiling from 2014-15.
Plus, I think are some real reasons to believe that Seattle didn’t internally view Gohara as a 50 FV guy, presumably because of some concerns about his makeup and conditioning.
I imagine he’ll get moved soon and we’ll see for sure, but I have a hard time imagining the league giving up a prospect in the 75-100 overall range for Odorizzi personally.
But aren’t all top 100 prospects rated 55FV? And you don’t think Odo returns even a 50FV. I think you’ll be surprised by his return.
Smyly was just a bad Dipoto trade. No reason to use it as a barometer of anything other than other bad Dipoto trades.
I was using the Fangraphs’ ratings personally. They have 42 players 55 and above, with about 100 players (beginning with Jake Bauers) as 50’s. MLB Pipeline is usually a little more bullish with their grades, but FG offers better coverage IMO. A 45 FV, the way that I’m using it, would be a guy ranked between about 150-350 overall
The commenters at DK’s site figured out why the Pirates signed McKenry to be their studio commentator…evidently, he’s cheap.
Yes, that is EVERY SINGLE Pirate narrative here in Pittsburgh.
I heard a caller to The Fan say that Nutting’s cheap because he should have offered Andrew McCutchen an ownership stake in the team. Most fans realize that large contracts to even future HOF’ers like Pujols and Miggy are a bad idea, but yinzers are mad that the “cheap —” Pirates won’t even give Cutch an ownership stake.
Clueless.
I think that caller should give 10% of the equity in his home to Cutch. You know, cuz he was a really good player and all.
I don’t like that marijuana is fine for MLB players, but Minor League players get 100 game suspensions for it.
It’s a dumb rule, yeah, but it’s also a rule which they all know about and break anyways (multiple times). I’d get rid of the rule, personally, but at the same time, I don’t feel much sympathy for these guys either