Nov. 4: Despaigne has elected free agency, the Angels announced.
Nov. 3: Despaigne has not yet cleared waivers, per his agent. Should he do so, the 31-year-old may opt to reject the assignment and become a free agent.
Nov. 2: The Angels announced Friday that right-handers Deck McGuire, Odrisamer Despaigne and Eduardo Paredes have all cleared waivers, as have infielder Jefry Marte and catcher Francisco Arcia. All five have been assigned outright to the minor leagues.
Marte, 27, saw the most playing time of the bunch in ’18, appearing in 90 games and tallying 209 plate appearances for the Halos. He gave the Angels a fairly productive part-time bat back in 2016, but since that time the corner infielder has posted a dismal .199/.271/.346 slash. The right-handed-hitting Marte has played primarily first base in the Majors but also has more than 300 innings at the hot corner and nearly 200 innings in left field.
Despaigne, 31, was roughed up for 17 runs in 18 2/3 innings late in the year when pressed into duty for an Angels staff that was decimated by injuries. The journeyman righty has bounced around the league on a series of waiver claims and minor league deals since signing with the Padres back in ’14. In 349 2/3 innings between San Diego, Baltimore, Miami and Anaheim, Despaigne has a 4.94 ERA with a middling 5.6 K/9 mark.
The 29-year-old McGuire and 23-year-old Paredes each limped to ERAs north of 6.00 in fewer than 30 innings of work. McGuire is a former first-rounder who’s yet to pan out in the big leagues but has had some recent success in the upper minors. Paredes, though he has youth on his side, has had some control issues in the upper minors and hasn’t impressed in a pair of big league seasons.
Arcia, meanwhile, made his big league debut as a 29-year-old this season and posted a .654 OPS in 20 games. He posted a .282/.353/.393 slash at the Triple-A level this year and has a dozen minor league seasons under his belt.
I’m cool (and dare I say happy) about all 5 of these.
Arcia the best of the bunch, expecting a catcher signing out of Eppler now to pair with Briceno.
Not shocked they all cleared waivers. Arcia is good to keep as depth, hoping for a solid catcher to be brought in.
Wilson ramos will be am angel mark it down. 3/4 years 15 million annually.
That’s too low, more like 3yrs 24-27 mil.
The guy said $15M ANNUALLY
Didn’t see annually, my mistake.
Lord, I hope not at that price!
Hopefully the Angels go the trade route and get Realmuto from the Marlins. I haven’t the slightest clue what it would take but barring anyone Top 5 on the farm, do it, get it done.
Zero chance we could get JTR without giving up anyone in the top 5. I’ve got to assume Jo Adell is the starting point
So unlikely. Probably half the teams in MLB would want Realmuto, and that means bidding wars. Eppler isn’t letting go of the players required to make that deal.
Still waiting on Cowart to be DFA
Honestly, I was surprised not to see his name on that list.
Still say they should turn him into a reliever, get some value out of that arm. He was a pitcher before the Angels decided to make him a position player, so it isn’t that far-fetched an idea.
I’m very surprised Arcia is apart of this group. I was assuming him and Briceno would be battling it out for the backup spot. I guess Kevan Smith is going to battle Briceno now? Hopefully the Halos sign Grandal, I prefer a switch hitting catcher in Grandal than Ramos. The lineup is already Righty heavy.
Cowart was a two-way player as an amateur. I believe he wanted to be a position player rather than a pitcher when he was drafted, so it’s not just that the Angels “decided” to make him a position player..
I wouldn’t be opposed to having try and and relieve. Now you have a plus defensive guy in your bullpen too. That’s maximizing your roster. Doubt he could do it but it would be cool.
Deck McGuire should join up with Shed Long to form a nice backyard.
Welcome to the Royals
so you got rid of deck to get Bryce. lol same guy different name.
Angels should trade Trout now. Load up on prospects and try to be good again by 2021.. With or without Trout, the Angels are plain vanilla doomed to finish a few games above or below .500 each year. Fan base can’t be happy about that. The worst thing a team can be is boring, and there is hardly a MLB team more boring than the Angels.
Trout alone makes the angels exciting to watch. Yeah it sucks seeing them hover around .500, but so many fans come to games solely to watch trout.
But think about how exciting the huge return would be. We’re talking multiple top 100 guys, major league ready kids- like, that would be crazy.
saying a team with two way ohtani, defensive wizard simmons and obviously trout among others is near the most boring team in baseball makes me question how much you really enjoy baseball.
Ausmus needs to clean house!
Sounds like Despaigne has elected retirement
Marte had a very low babip, I could see him being a great low cost acquisition
Didn’t say the players were boring, said the plain vanilla near-.500 finishes are boring. Heck, every team, even the lowly Padres and Marlins have a few players each who are, as you say, not boring and/or fun to watch. The Angels need a reboot, and they need it now. In the absence of that, Angel fans can expect similar W-L column results for the foreseeable future. To me, that’s boring.